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THE PRESIDENTS 
OF THE UNITED STATES 



If you would understand history, study men 

Charles Kingsley 



THE PRESIDENTS 
OF THE UNITED STATES 

1789-1902 

BY 

JOHN FISKE, CARL SCHURZ, ROBERT C. WINTHROP, 

GEORGE TICKNOR CURTIS, GEORGE BANCROFT, 

JOHN HAY, AND OTHERS 

EDITED BY 

JAMES GRANT WILSON 



ILLUSTRATED 




NEW YORK 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



THE 1- 


I8RARY OFl 


GONGRESS, 1 


Twp Cop.es 


Received 


OCT. 


4 


1902 


CnovmcHT 


ENTRY 


CLASS 


ir 


-ftj 01- 


CC XXc. No^ 


^0 


4- 


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COPY 


A. 



:^^^^^ 



Copyright, i386, 1887, 1S88, 1889, 1894, 1898, 1902 
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



Electrotvped and Printed 

AT THE ApPLETON PrESS., U. S. A. 






i 



N 






PREFACE 



Many of the brief biographies of the twenty-five presi- 
dents of the United States contained in this volume were 
written by distinguished scholars and statesmen who were pe- 
culiarly fitted by their training or contact with our chief magis- 
trates to render ample justice to their subjects, and also to 
treat them with what Edmund Burke describes as " the cold 
neutrality of an impartial judge." Several of the monographs 
were especially prepared for this work, while the larger num- 
ber were written for " Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American 
Biography." In some instances they have been revised and 
enlarged for the present volume. These five-and-twenty arti- 
cles contain a complete record of the most important events 
in the nation's history from the inauguration of our first presi- 
dent to the close of 1901, a period of more than one hundred 
and twelve years, and including twenty-nine administrations. 
The well-known writers of these model biographies of our 
chief magistrates are not responsible for the brief notices of 
the ladies of the White House, for the sketches of other per- 
sons connected with the families of the presidents, for the 
bibliographies accompanying their monographs, nor for the 
selection of the many illustrations in the text, which it is 
believed will enhance the interest and value of the volume. 
These have been added by the editor. The twenty-five steel 
portraits have been engraved from the best originals obtain- 
able, and the interesting series of facsimiles, with three excep- 



vi LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

tions, were taken from the editor's complete collection of let- 
ters written by the presidents, concerning some of whom — 
such as Washington, the elder Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, Grant, 
and McKinley — it may safely be said, " upon the adamant of 
their fame the stream of time beats without injury." For those' 
of John Adams, James Monroe, and Andrew Johnson the pub- 
lishers are indebted to the courtesy of William Evarts Ben- 
jamin, as those three examples in the editor's collection of 
manuscript letters of our chief magistrates were not well 
adapted for use in this work. 

New York, December, igoi. 



CONTENTS. 



ARTICLE. 


AUTHOR. 


PAGE 


George Washington 


. Robert C. Winthrop . , 


I 


John Adams 


. John Fiske . . , . . 


36 


Thomas Jefferson . 


. James Parton . . . . , 


62 


James Madison . 


. John Fiske . . . . . 


88 


James Monroe . 


. Daniel C. Gilman . . . . 


107 


John Quincy Adams 


. John Fiske . . . . . 


120 


Andrew Jackson 


. John Fiske 


137 


Martin Van Buren . 


. James C. Welling . . = . 


169 


William Henry Harriso 


N . Arthur E. Bostwick 


1S5 


John Tyler 


. John Fiske .... 


195 


James K. Polk . 


. George Bancroft . . . . 


216 


Zachary Taylor 


. Jefferson Davis 


233 


Millard Fillmore . 


. James Grant Wilson 


246 


Franklin Pierce 


. Bainbridge Wadleigh 


262 


James Buchanan 


. George Ticknor Curtis . 


277 


Abraham Lincoln . 


. John Hay .... 


300 


Andrew Johnson 


. James Phelan .... 


336 


Ulysses S. Grant 


. Horace Porter .... 


347 


Rutherford B. Hayes 


. Carl Schurz .... 


397 


James A. Garfield . 


. William Walter Phelps . 


426 


Chester A. Arthur . 


. William E. Chandler 


444 


Grover Cleveland . 


. Wi!:K.n. £. Russell . 


. 468 


Benjamin Harrison . 


. William P. Fishback 


• 493 


William McKinley . 


. Joseph P. Smith 


• 513 


Theodore Roosevelt 


. Owen Wister .... 


• 545 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PORTRAITS ON STEEL. 





ARTIST. 


Washington, George 


. Stuart 


Adams, John 


. Stuart 


Adams, John Quincy 


. Marchant 


Arthur, Chester A. 


. Bell . 


Buchanan, James 


. Smith 


Cleveland, Grover 


. Bogardus 


Fillmore, Millard 


. Baker 


Garfield, James A. 


Sarotiy 


Grant, Ulysses S. 


Kurtz 


Harrison, Benjamin 


. Bogardus 


Harrison, William ] 


FIenry . Marceau 


Hayes, Rutherford 


B. . . Landy 


Jackson, Andrew 


. Longacre 


Jefferson, Thomas 


. Bro-un 


Johnson, Andrew 


. Brady 


Lincoln, i\.BRAHAM 


. Hesler 


Madison, James . 


. Stuart 


McKinley, William 


. Parker 


Monroe, James . 


. Vanderlyn 


Pierce, Franklin 


. Healy 


Polk, James Knox . 


. Poole 


Roosevelt, Theodor 


E . . Pack 


Taylor, Zachary 


. Brady 


Tyler, John 


. Longacre 


Van Buren, Martin 


. Brady 



FACING 
PAGE 



Frontispiece 



36 
120 

444 
277 
468 
246 
426 
347 
498 
185 
397 
137 

62 
336 
300 

88 
513 
107 
262 
216 
545 
233 
195 
169 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



FACSIMILES OF LETTERS BY THE PRESIDENTS. 

George Washington to James Madison (last page) . 
John Adams to Judge William Cranch . 
Thomas Jefferson to Mrs. Margaret Harrison Smith 
James Madison to Mrs. Margaret Harrison Smith 
James Monroe to the General Assembly of Virginia 
John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams 
Andrew Jackson to James Knox Polk . 
Martin Van Buren to Fitz-Greene Halleck 
William Henry Harrison to David K. Este . 
John Tyler to David S. Gardiner (last page) . 
James Knox Polk to Mrs. Sarah C. Polk (last page) 
Zachary Taylor to John J. Crittenden (last page) . 
Millard Fillmore to James Grant Wilson 
Franklin Pierce to William L. Marcy . 
James Buchanan to Aaron V. Brown 
Abraham Lincoln to John S. Stuart 
Andrew Johnson to David D. Patterson (last page) 
Ulysses S. Grant to James Grant Wilson 
Rutherford B. Hayes to the Editor 
James Abram Garfield to James H. Rhodes . 
Chester Alan Arthur to James Grant Wilson . 
Grover Cleveland to Mrs. James Grant Wilson 
Benjamin Harrison to the Editor .... 
William McKinley to D. Appleton and Company . 
Theodore Roosevelt to the Editor .... 

ILLUSTRATIOxNS IN THE TEXT. 

Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Mary Washington 

The Birthplace of George W^ashington . 

Drawing of the Locality by General Sherman 

Portrait and Autograph of Washington in Early Life 

The Episcopal Church at Pohick, Va. 

Trumbull's Portrait of W^ashington .... 

Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh, N. Y. . 

Marble Bust of Washington, by Houdon 

Wertmiiller's Portrait of Washington 

Portrait of Washington, by Du Simitiere 

The Tomb of George Washington, at Mount Vernon 



FACING 
PAGE 

i8 

55 
8i 

IOC 

"3 

124 

149 
178 
190 
211 
222 

239 
256 
269 
296 
325 
342 
377 
422 

437 
460 

475 
504 
519 
550 

PAGE 

2 

3 

4 

7 

II 

13 
16 
20 
21 

25 
26 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



XI 



The Washington Obelisk, in Washington, D. C. . 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Martha Washington 
View of Mount Vernon, Virginia . 
Arlington House, near W'ashington, D. C. 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. E. P. Lewis 
Houses in which John Adams and his Son were bom 
Early Portrait and Autograph of John Adams 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Abigail Adams 
Monticello, the Home of Thomas Jefferson 
Impression of Thomas Jefferson's Seal . 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Martha Randolph 
Portrait and Autograph of James Madison 
Montpelier, the Residence of James Madison 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Dolly Madison 
Oak Hill, the Residence of James Monroe . 
Tomb of President Monroe, Richmond, Va. . 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Elizabeth Monroe 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Louisa C. Adams 
Portrait and Autograph of Charles Francis Adams 
Jackson's Headquarters near New Orleans 
The Hermitage, the Home of General Jackson 
Valle's Early Portrait of Jackson, and Autograph 
Portrait and Autograph of Martin Van Buren 
John Van Buren's Portrait and Autograph 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Angelica Van Buren 
Portrait and Autograph of Benjamin Harrison, the Sign 
General William Henry Harrison Campaign Medal 
Mrs. Anna Harrison's Portrait and Autograph 
Sherwood Forest, the Residence of John Tyler 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Julia Gardiner Tyler 
James K. Polk's Residence in Nashville, Tenn. . 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Sarah C. Polk 
General Taylor's House as it now appears 
Monument and Statue of General Taylor 
Portrait and Autograph of Millard Fillmore . 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Abigail Fillmore . 
Birthplace of Franklin Pierce, Hillsborough, N. H. 
The Tomb of President Pierce, Concord, N. H. . 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Jane M. A. Pierce 



PAGE 
27 

30 

32 

33 

34 

36 

37 

60 

72 

77 

87 

98 

102 

106 

no 

117 

118 

129 

133 
146 

159 
165 
173 
182 
184 
186 
192 
194 
202 
215 
225 
231 
241 

243 
252 

258 
265 
272 
275 



Xll 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Wheatland, the Residence of James Buchanan 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Harriet Lane Johnston 
Early Portrait of Lincoln, and Autograph 
Lincoln's Residence in Springfield, 111. . 
Statue of Lincoln, by St. Gaudens, in Chicago 
Lincoln's Statue, by Henry K. Browne, in New York 
Statue of Lincoln, by Randolph Rogers, in Philadelphia 
House in Washington where Lincoln died 
Death Mask of Lincoln, taken by Leonard W. Volk 
President Lincoln's Tomb, Springfield, 111. 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Mary Lincoln 
Portrait and Autograph of Robert T. Lincoln 
Andrew Johnson's Workshop, Greenville, Tenn. 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Eliza M. Johnson 
Birthplace cf General Grant, Mount Pleasant, Ohio 
Portrait of (irant as a Lieutenant, and Autograph 
Grant's Last Portrait, taken at Mount McGregor . 
McLean House, the Scene of Lee's Surrender 
Gold Medal voted by Congress to General Grant . 
House at Mount McGregor where Grant died 
Equestrian Statue of Grant, by Rebisso, in Chicago 
Eastern Fa9ade of the Structure and Statue . 
Tomb of General Grant, Riverside Park, New York 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Julia D. Grant . 
Home of President Hayes, Fremont, Ohio 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Lucy W. Hayes . 
Birthplace of James A. Garfield, " The Wilderness," Ohio 
Statue of President Garfield, Washington, D. C. . 
Tomb of General Garfield, Cleveland, Ohio . 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Lucretia R. Garfield 
Tomb of President Arthur, in Rural Cemetery, Albany, N. 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Mary A. McElroy 
Northeast View of the White House, Washington, D. C 
Gray Gables, Grover Cleveland's Summer Residence 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Frances Cleveland 
Benjamin Harrison's Portrait and Autograph. 
Residence of President Harrison in Indianapolis . 
Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Caroline S. Harrison 
Birthplace of President McKinley at Niles, Ohio . 



PAGE 

287 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xiii 



PAGE 



The Home of President McKinley at Canton 525 

Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Ida S. McKinley ..... ^44 

Portrait and Autograph of Theodore Roosevelt ..... 547 

Summer Residence of President Roosevelt at Oyster Bay, Long Island . 550 

Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Edith K. Roosevelt .... 555 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

George Washington, first president of the United States, 
born at Pope's Creek, near Bridge's Creek, Westmoreland co., 
Va., 22 Feb., 1732; died at Mount Vernon, 14 Dec, 1799. Of 
his English ancestry various details are given in more than 
one formal biography of him, and very recently several ques- 
tions of his genealogy have been satisfactorily solved by 
Mr. Henry F. Waters, Mr. Moncure D. Conway, and Mr. W. C. 
Ford, which had eluded even the labors of the late Col. J. L. 
Chester. It is perhaps too early to regard his English ances- 
try as beyond all further question. At all events, this memoir 
may well be allowed to begin with his American history. 

His earliest ancestor in this country was John Washington, 
who had resided for some years at South Cave, near the Hum- 
ber, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, and who came 
over to Virginia, with his brother Lawrence, in 1657. Purchas- 
ing lands in Westmoreland county and establishing his residence 
at Pope's Creek, not far from the Potomac, he became, in due 
course, an extensive planter, a county magistrate, and a mem- 
ber of the house of burgesses. He distinguished himself, also, 
as colonel of the Virginia forces in driving off a band of Seneca 
Indians who were ravaging the neighboring settlements. In 
honor of his public and private character, the parish in which 
he resided was called Washington. In this parish his grand- 
son, Augustine, the second son of Lawrence Washington, was 
born in 1694. By his first wife Augustine had four children. 
Two of them died young, but two sons, Lawrence and Augus- 
tine, survived their mother, who died in 1728. On 6 March, 
1730, the father was again married. His second wife was 
Mary Ball, and George was her first child. 



^L ^M/'^/n^l^rlOnv 






LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 




If tradition is to be trusted, few sons ever had a more lovely 
and devoted mother, and no mother a more dutiful and affection- 
ate son. Bereaved of her husband, who died after a short illness 
in 1743, when George was but eleven years of age, and with four 

younger children to be cared for, 
she discharged the responsibilities 
thus sadly devolved upon her with 
scrupulous fidelity and firmness. 
To her we owe the precepts and 
example that governed George's 
life. The excellent maxims, moral 
and religious, which she found in 
her favorite manual — " Sir Mat- 
thew Hale's Contemplations " — 
were impressed on his memory and 
on his heart, as she read them 
aloud to her children; and that 
little volume, with the autograph 
inscription of Mary Washington, 
was among the cherished treasures 
of his library as long as he lived. To her, too, under God, we 
owe especially the restraining influence and authority, that 
held him back, at the last moment, as we shall see, from em- 
barking on a line of life that would have cut him off from the 
great career that has rendered his name immortal. 

Well did Dr. Sparks, in his careful and excellent biogra- 
phy, speak of " the debt owed by mankind to the mother 
of Washington." A pleasing conjectural picture, not without 
some weight of testimon}^, has been adopted by Mr. Los- 
sing in his " Mary and Martha," representing her at the 
age of twenty-three.* She delighted in saying simply that 
" George had always been a good son " ; and her own life 
was fortunately prolonged until she had seen him more than 
fulfil every hope of her heart. On his way to his first in- 
auguration as president of the United States Washington came 
to bid his mother a last farewell, just before her death. 

That parting scene, however, was not at his birthplace. The 
primitive Virginia farm-house in which he was born had long 
ceased to be the family residence, and had gradually fallen into 



%<^W. 



'WA/no^^t^ 



* See vignette, from the original in the possession of Mrs. S. F. B. Morse. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. j 

ruin. The remains of a large kitchen-chimney were all that 
could be identified of it in 1878, by a party of which Secretary 
Evarts, General Sherman, and the late Mr. Charles C. Perkins, 
of Boston, were three, who visited the spot with a view to the 
erection of a memorial under the authority of congress. Not 
long after the birth that has rendered this spot forever memor- 
able, Augustine Washington removed to an estate in Stafford 
county, on the east side of the Rappahannock, opposite Fred- 
ericksburg, and resided there with his family during the remain- 
ing years of his life. That was the scene of George's early child- 
hood. There he first went to school, in an "old-field " school- 
house, with Hobby, the sexton of the parish, for his first master. 
After his father's death, however, he was sent back to the old 
homestead at Pope's Creek, to live for a while with his elder 
half-brother, Augustine, to whom the Westmoreland estate had 
been left, and who, on his marriage, had taken it for his resi- 
dence. There George had the advantage of at least a better 
school than Hobby's, kept by a Mr. Williams. But it taught 
him nothing except reading, writing, and arithmetic, with a 
little geometry and surveying. For this last study he evinced 
a marked preference. Many of his copy-books of that period 
have been preserved, and they show no inconsiderable pro- 
ficiency in the surveyor's art, even before he finally left school, 
toward the close of his sixteenth year. 

One of those manuscript books, however, is of a miscellane- 
ous and peculiarly interesting character, containing carefully 
prepared forms for business pa- 
pers ; a few selections or, it may 
be, original compositions in 
rhyme ; and a series of " Rules 
of Behavior in Company and 
Conversation," most of them 
translated from a French Book 
of " Maximes," discovered by 
Mr. Conway, of which the last 
and most noteworthy one, not 

in the French series, and which he may have added himself, 
must never be omitted from the story of Washington's boy- 
hood: "Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of 
celestial fire. Conscience." All these schoolboy manuscripts bear 
witness alike to his extreme care in cultivating a neat, clear, 




LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



and elegant handwriting, and his name is sometimes written 
almost as if in contemplation of the great instruments and state 
papers to which it was destined to be the attesting signature. 
Meantime he was training himself for vigorous manhood 
by all sorts of robust exercises and athletic sports. He played 
soldier, sometimes, with his school-mates, always asserting the 
authority of captain, and subjecting the little company to a 
rigid discipline. Running, leaping, and wrestling were among 
his favorite pastimes. He became a fearless rider, too, and no 
horse is said to have been too fiery for him. " Above all," as 
Irving well says, " his inherent probity, and the principles of 
justice on which he regulated his conduct, even at this early 
period of his life, were soon appreciated by his school-mates; 

he was referred to as an umpire in 
their disputes, and his decisions were 
never reversed." A crisis in Wash- 
ington's life occurred before he left 
school. His eldest half-brother, 
Lawrence, had already been an offi- 
cer in the English service, and was 
at the siege of Carthagena under Ad- 
miral Vernon, for whom he formed 
a great regard, and whose name he 
afterward gave to his estate on the 
Potomac. Observing George's mili- 
tary propensities, and thinking that 
the English navy would afford him 
the most promising field for future 
distinction, Lawrence obtained a 
midshipman's warrant for him in 1746, when he was just four- 
teen years old, and George is said to have been on the point of 
embarking on this English naval service. The earnest remon- 
strance of his mother was interposed, and the project reluc- 
tantly abandoned. He thereupon resumed his studies, and did 
not leave school till the autumn before his sixteenth year. 
Soon afterward he went to reside with his brother Lawrence, 
who had married a Fairfax of Belvoir, and had established him- 
self at Mount Vernon. 

Washington's education was now finished, so far as schools 
and schoolmasters were concerned, and he never enjoyed or 
sought the advantages of a college. Indeed, only a month 




/r^r, 5. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. C 

after he was sixteen he entered on the active career of a sur- 
veyor of lands, in the employment of William Fairfax, the 
father of his brother's wife, and the manager of the great 
estate of his cousin, Lord Fairfax. In this work he voluntarily 
subjected himself to every variety of hardship and personal 
danger. Those Alleghany valleys and hills were then a wilder- 
ness, where difficult obstructions were to be overcome, severe 
exposures to be endured, and savage tribes to be conciliated or 
encountered. For three successive years he persevered un- 
dauntedly in this occupation, having obtained a commission 
from the president and master of William and Mary college as 
a public surveyor for Culpeper county, which entitled his sur- 
veys to a place in the county office, where they were held in 
high esteem for completeness and accuracy. During these 
three years he allowed himself but little relaxation, yet found 
time in the winter months for an occasional visit to his mother, 
and for aiding her in the management of her affairs. 

And now, at nineteen years of age, he received an appoint- 
ment as adjutant-general, with the rank of major, to inspect 
and exercise the militia in one of the districts into which Vir- 
ginia was divided in view of the French encroachments and 
the Indian depredations with which the frontiers were menaced. 
Before he had fairly entered on this service, however, he was 
called to accompany his brother Lawrence to the West Indies, 
on a voyage for his brother's health, and was absent from 
home for more than four months, during which he had a severe 
attack of small-pox. His brother remained longer, and re- 
turned at last only to die, leaving George as one of his execu- 
tors, and involving him in large responsibilities as well as in 
much personal affliction. Meantime his appointment as ad- 
jutant-general was renewed by Gov. Dinwiddle, and he was 
assigned to the charge of one of the grand military divisions 
of the colony. A wider field of service was thus opened to 
Washington, on which he entered with alacrity. 

War between France and England was now rapidly approach- 
ing, involving a conflict for the possession of a large part of the 
American continent. French posts were already established on 
the banks of the Ohio, with a view of confining the English colo- 
nies within the Alleghany mountains. Gov. Dinwiddle, under 
instructions from the British ministry, resolved upon sending a 
commissioner to the officer commanding the French forces to in- 



6 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

quire by what authority he was invading the king's dominions, 
and to ascertain, if possible, his further designs. Washington 
was selected for this delicate and dangerous mission, after 
several others had declined to undertake it. He accepted it at 
once, and toward the end of November, 1753, he set out from 
Williamsburg, without any military escort, on a journey of 
nearly 600 miles — a great part of it over " lofty and rugged 
mountains and through the heart of a wilderness." The perilous 
incidents of this expedition cannot be recounted here. His 
marvellous and providential escapes, at one time from the 
violence of the savages, at another from assassination by a 
treacherous guide, at a third from being drowned in cross- 
ing the Alleghany river on a raft, have been described in all 
the accounts of his early manhood, substantially from his 
own journal, published in London at the time. He reached 
Williamsburg on his return on 16 Jan., 1754, and delivered to 
Gov. Dinwiddle the reply of the French commander to his 
message of inquiry. No more signal test could have been 
afforded of Washington's various talents and characteristics, 
which this expedition served at once to display and to develop. 
" From that moment," says his biographer, Irving, " he was the 
rising hope of Virginia." 

He was then but just finishing his twenty-first year, and im- 
mediately after his return he was appointed to the chief com- 
mand of a little body of troops raised for meeting immediate 
exigencies ; but the military establishment was increased as 
soon as the governor could convene the legislature of Virginia, 
and Washington was appointed lieutenant-colonel of a regi- 
ment, with Joshua Fry, an accomplished Oxford scholar, as his 
colonel. Upon Washington at once devolved the duty of going 
forward with such companies as were enlisted, and the sudden 
death of Col. Fry soon left him in full command of the expe- 
dition. The much-misrepresented skirmish with the French 
troops, resulting in the death of Jumonville, was followed, 
on 3 July, 1754, by the battle of the Great Meadows, where 
Washington held his ground, in Fort Necessity, from eleven in 
the morning to eight at night, against a great superiority of 
numbers, until the French requested a parley. A capitulation 
ensued, in every way honorable to Washington as it was trans- 
lated and read to him, but which proved, when printed, to con- 
tain terms in the French language which he never would have 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



signed or admitted had they not been suppressed or softened 
by the interpreter.* 

The course now adopted by Gov. Dinwiddie in the reorgan- 
ization of the Virginia troops, against which Washington re- 
monstrated, and which would have reduced him to an inferior 
grade, led at once to his resignation, and, after a brief visit to 
his mother, he retired to Mount Vernon! He was soon so- 
licited by Gov. Sharpe, of Maryland, then the commander-in- 
chief of the English forces, to resume his station, but under 
circumstances and upon conditions incompatible with his self- 
respect. In declining the invitation he used this memorable 
language : " I shall have the consolation of knowing that I 
have opened the way, when the smallness of our numbers ex- 
posed us to the attacks of a superior enemy ; and that I have 
had the thanks of my country for the services I have rendered." 
But now Gen. Braddock was sent over from England with two 
regiments of regulars, and Washington did not hesitate to 
accept an appointment on his staff as a volunteer aide-de-camp. 
The prudent counsels that he gave Braddock before he set 
out on his ill-fated expedition, and often repeated along the 
road, were not followed ; but Washington, notwithstanding a 
violent attack of fever, was with him 
on the bloody field of the Monon- 
gahela, behaving, as his fellow aide- 
de-camp, Col. Orne, testified, " with 
the greatest courage and resolution," 
witnessing at last Braddock's defeat 
and death, and being the only mount- 
ed officer not killed or disabled. " By 
the all - powerful dispensations of 
Providence," wrote he to his brother, 
" I have been protected beyond all 
human probability or expectation ; 
for I had four bullets through my 
coat, and two horses shot under me, 
yet I escaped unhurt, although death 
was levelling my companions on every side." It fell to him by 
a striking coincidence — the chaplain being wounded — to read 
the funeral service at the burial of Braddock at the Great 




See note at end of chapter xii., vol. i., of Irving's " Life of Washington." 



8 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

Meadows, the scene of his own capitulation the year before. In 
a sermon to one of the companies organized under the impulse 
of Braddock's defeat, and in view of the impending dangers of 
the country, the Rev. Samuel Davies, an eloquent and accom- 
plished preacher, who, in 1759, succeeded Jonathan Edwards 
as president of Princeton college, after praising the zeal and 
courage of the Virginia troops, added these prophetic words : 
"As a remarkable instance of this, I may point out to the pub- 
lic that heroic youth, Col. Washington, whom I cannot but hope 
Providence has hitherto preserved in so signal a manner for 
some important service to his country." 

A force of 2,000 men having now been ordered to be raised 
by the Virginia assembly, Washington was appointed to the 
chief command, and established his headquarters at Winchester. 
He broke away from the perplexing cares of^this place in 
February, 1756, to make a hurried visit to Gov. Shirley in Bos- 
ton, where he settled successfully with him, then the com- 
mander-in-chief of the English forces on this continent, a 
vexatious question of precedence between the provincial offi- 
cers and those appointed by the crown. On his return he 
devoted himself to measures for the security of the frontier. 
In the course of the following year he was again the subject of 
a violent fever, which prostrated him for several months. " My 
constitution," he wrote to a friend, "is much impaired, and 
nothing can retrieve it but the greatest care and the most 
circumspect course of life." Under these circumstances he 
seriously contemplated again resigning his command and retir- 
ing from all further public business. But his favorite measure, 
the reduction of Fort Duquesne, was at length to be under- 
taken, and, after much disappointment and delay, Washington, 
on 25 Nov., 1758, was privileged to "march in and plant the 
British flag on the yet smoking ruins " of that fort — henceforth 
to be known as Fort Pitt, in honor of the great minister of 
England, afterward Lord Chatham. 

Meantime Washington had chanced to meet on his way to 
Williamsburg, at the house of a hospitable Virginian with whom 
he dined, a charming widow, who at once won his heart. Most ' 
happily he soon succeeded in winning hers also, and on 6 Jan., 
1759, she became his wife. Martha Custis, daughter of John 
Dandridge and widow of John Parke Custis, was henceforth 
to be known in history as Martha Washington. He had now 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. n 

finally resigned his commission as a colonial officer, and was 
preparing to enjoy something of the retirement of private life. 
But while he was still absent on his last campaign he had been 
chosen a delegate to the Virginia house of burgesses, and he 
had hardly established himself at Mount Vernon, a few months 
after his marriage, when he was summoned to attend a session 
of that body at Williamsburg. He was not allowed, however, 
to enter unobserved on his civil career. No sooner did he 
make his appearance than the Speaker, agreeably to a previous 
vote of the house, presented their thanks to him, in the name 
of the colony, for the distinguished military service he had 
rendered to his country, accompanying the vote of thanks with 
expressions of compliment and praise which greatly embar- 
rassed him. He attempted to make his acknowledgments, but 
stammered and trembled and "could not give distinct utter- 
ance to a single syllable." "Sit down, Mr. Washington," said 
the Speaker, with infinite address ; " your modesty equals your 
valor, and that surpasses the power of any language I possess." 
Fourteen or fifteen years more elapsed before the great 
struggle for American mdependence began, and during all this 
time he continued to be a member of the house of burgesses. 
He was punctual in his attendance at all their sessions, which 
were commonly at least two in a year, and took an earnest 
interest in all that was said and done, but " it is not known," 
says Sparks, " that he ever made a set speech or entered into 
a stormy debate." He had a passion for agricultural pursuits. 
He delighted in his quiet rural life at Mount Vernon with his 
wife and her children — he had none of his own — finding ample 
occupation in the management of his farms, and abundant 
enjoyment in hunting and fishing with the genial friends and 
relatives in his neighborhood. He was a vestryman of two 
parishes, regular in his attendance at one or the other of the 
parochial churches, at Alexandria or at Pohick, and both he 
and his wife were communicants. Meantime he was always at 
the service of his friends or the community for any aid or 
counsel that he could render them. He was often called on to 
be an arbitrator, and his judgment and impartiality were never 
questioned. As a commissioner for settling the military ac- 
counts of the colony, after the treaty of peace of 1763, he 
spared himself no labor in the execution of a most arduous and 
complicated task. In a word, he was a good citizen, an exem- 



lO LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS, 

plary Christian, a devoted father, a kind master to the slaves 
who had come to him by inheritance or marriage, and was 
respected and beloved by all. 

At length, at forty-three years of age, he was called upon 
to begin a career that closed only with his life, during which 
he held the highest and most responsible positions in war and 
in peace, and rendered inestimable services to his country and to 
mankind. To follow that career in detail would require noth- 
ing less than a history of the United States for the next five- 
and-twenty years. Washington was naturally of a cautious 
and conservative cast, and by no means disposed for a rupture 
with the mother country, if it could be avoided without the 
sacrifice of rights and principles. But as the various stages of 
British aggression succeeded each other, beginning with the 
stamp-act, the repeal of which he hailed with delight, and fol- 
lowed by the tea tax and the Boston port bill, he became 
keenly alive to the danger of submission, and was ready to 
unite in measures of remonstrance, opposition, and ultimately 
of resistance. When he heard at Williamsburg, m August, 1773 
of the sufferings resulting from the port bill, he is said to have 
exclaimed, impulsively : " I will raise a thousand men, subsist 
them at my own expense, and march with them, at their head, 
for the relief of Boston." He little dreamed at that moment 
that within two years he was destined to be hailed as the 
deliverer of Boston from British occupation. He accepted an 
election as a delegate to the first Continental congress in 1774, 
and went to the meeting at Philadelphia in September of that 
year, in company with Patrick Henry and Edmund Pendleton, 
who called for him at Mount Vernon on horseback. That 
congress sat in Carpenter's Hall with closed doors, but the 
great papers that it prepared and issued form a proud part of 
American history. Those were the papers and that" the con- 
gress of which Chatham in the house of lords, in his memorable 
speech on the removal of troops from Boston, 20 Jan., 1775, 
said : " When your lordships look at the papers transmitted to 
us from America, when you consider their decency, firmness, 
and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause, and wish to 
make it your own. For myself, I must declare and avow that 
in all my reading and observation — and it has been my favorite 
study — I have read Thucydides, and have studied and admired 
the master states of the world — that for solidity of reasoning, 




GEORGE WASHINGTON. 1 1 

force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a com- 
plication of difficult circumstances, no nation or body of men 
can stand in preference to the general congress at Philadel- 
phia." The precise part taken by Washington within the closed 
doors of Carpenter's Hall is no- 
where recorded, but the testi- 
mony of one of its most distin- 
guished members cannot be for- 
gotten. When Patrick Henry 
returned home from the meeting, 
and was asked whom he consid- 
ered the greatest man in that 
congress, he replied : " If you 
speak of eloquence, Mr. Rutledge, 
of South Carolina, is by far the 

greatest orator ; but if you speak of solid information and 
sound judgment. Col. Washington is unquestionably the great- 
est man on that floor." It is an interesting tradition that, dur- 
ing the prayers with which Dr. Duche opened that meeting at 
Carpenter's Hall on 5 Sept., 1774, while most of the other mem- 
bers were standing, Washington was kneeling. 

He was again a delegate to the Continental congress (the sec- 
ond) that assembled at Philadelphia on 10 May, 1775, by which, 
on the 15th of June, on the motion of Thomas Johnson, a 
delegate of Maryland, at the earnest instigation of John Adams, 
of Massachusetts, he was unanimously elected commander-in- 
chief of all the Continental forces raised, or to be raised, for 
the defence of American liberty. On the next morning he 
accepted the appointment and expressed his deep and grateful 
sense of the high honor conferred upon him, "but," added 
he, *' lest some unlucky event should happen, unfavorable 
to my reputation, I beg it may be remembered by every gen- 
tleman in the room that I this day declare, with the utmost 
sincerity, that I do not think myself equal to the com- 
mand I am honored with." "As to pay," he continued, " I beg 
leave to assure the congress that, as no pecuniary considera- 
tion could have tempted me to accept this arduous employ- 
ment, at the expense of my domestic ease and happiness, I do 
not wish to make any profit of it. I will keep an exact account 
of my expenses. Those I doubt not they will discharge, and 
that is all I desire." "You may believe me," he wrote to his 



12 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

wife at once, " when I assure you, in the most solemn manner, 
that so far from seeking this appointment, I have used every 
endeavor in my power to avoid it, not only from my unwilling- 
ness to part with you and the family, but from a consciousness 
of its being a trust too great for my capacity." Washington's 
commission was agreed to by congress on 17 June, and on the 
2ist he set out from Philadelphia on horseback to take com- 
mand of the American army encamped around Boston, of 
which place the British forces were in possession. The tidings 
of the battle of Bunker Hill reached him at New York on the 
25th, and the next day he was in the saddle again on his way 
to Cambridge. He arrived there on 2 July, and established 
his headquarters in the old Vassall (afterward Craigie) mansion, 
which has recently been known as the residence of the poet 
Longfellow. On 3 July he took formal command of the army, 
drawing his sword under an ancient elm, which has of late 
years been suitably inscribed. The American army numbered 
about 17,000 men, but only 14,500 were fit for duty. Coming 
hastily from different colonies, they were without supplies of 
tents or clothing, and there was not ammunition enough for 
nine cartridges to a man. Washington's work in combining 
and organizing this mass of raw troops was most embarrassing 
and arduous. But he persevered untiringly, and, after a siege 
of eight months, succeeded in driving the British from Boston 
on 17 March, 1776. For this grand exploit congress awarded 
him a splendid gold medal, which bore an admirable likeness 
of him on one side, and on the other side the inscription 
"Hostibus primo fugatis Bostonium recuperatum." Copies of 
this medal in silver and bronze have been multiplied, but the 
original gold medal has found a fit place, within a few years 
past, in the Boston Public Library. 

The way was now opened, and the scene of the war was 
soon transferred to other parts of the country. The day after 
the evacuation of Boston, five regiments, with a battalion of 
riflemen and two companies of artillery, were sent to New York. 
But, as the British fleet was still in Nantasket road, Washington 
did not venture to move more of his army, or to go away him- 
self, until the risk of a return was over. On 13 April he reached 
New York, and was soon summoned to Philadelphia for a con- 
ference with congress. On his return to New York, while he 
was anxiously awaiting an attack by the British forces, the 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



n 



Declaration of Independence, signed on 4 July, was transmitted 
to him. The regiments were forthwith paraded, and the Declara- 
tion was read at the head of the army. " The General hopes," 
said he in the orders of the day, " that this important event will 
serve as a fresh incentive to every officer and soldier to act 
with fidelity and courage, as knowing that now the peace and 
safety of his country depend, under God, solely on the success 
of our arms." He hailed the Declaration with delight, and had 
written to his brother, from Philadelphia, that he was rejoiced 
at " the noble act " of the Virginia convention, recommending 
that such a declaration should be adopted. But his little army, 
according to the returns of 5 Aug. following, hardly numbered 
more than 20,000 men, of whom six or seven thousand were sick 
or on furlough or otherwise absent, while the British forces 
were at least 24,000, supported by a large and thoroughly 
equipped fleet. The battle of 
Long Island soon followed, with 
disastrous results to the Ameri- 
cans, and the British took posses- 
sion of New York. Other reverses 
were not long delayed, and the 
strategy of Washington found 
its exhibition only in his skilful 
retreat from Long Island and 
through the Jerseys. But he was 
not disheartened, nor his confi- 
dence in ultimate success im- 
paired. When asked what was 
to be done if Philadelphia were 
taken, he replied : " We will retreat beyond the Susquehanna, 
and thence, if necessary, to the Alleghany mountains." His 
masterly movements on the Delaware were now witnessed, 
which Frederick the Great is said to have declared "the most 
brilliant achievements recorded in military annals." "Many 
years later," Mr. Lossing informs us in his interesting volume 
on Mount Vernon and its associations, " the great Frederick 
sent him a portrait of himself, accompanied by the remarkable 
words: 'From the oldest general in Europe to the greatest 
general in the world ! ' " Meantime he had a vast work to 
accomplish with entirely inadequate means. But he went 
along with heroic fortitude, unswerving constancy, and unspar- 




14 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



ing self-devotion, through all the trials and sufferings of Mon- 
mouth and Brandywine and Germantown and Valley Forge, 
until the grand consummation was at last reached at Yorktown, 
on 19 Oct., 1781. There, with the aid of our generous and gal- 
lant allies, he achieved the crowning victory of independence 
on the soil of his beloved Virginia. 

The details of this protracted contest must be left to history, 
as well as the infamous cabal for impeaching his ability and 
depriving him of his command and the still more infamous 
treason of Arnold, in September, 1780. Standing on the field 
of Yorktown, to receive the surrender of Lord Cornwallis and 
the British army, Washington was at length rewarded for all the 
labors and sacrifices and disappointments he had so bravely en- 
dured since his first great victory in expelling the British from 
Boston nearly seven years before. Massachusetts and Virginia 
were thus the scenes of his proudest successes, as they had been 
foremost in bringing to a test the great issue of American inde- 
pendence and American liberty. The glorious consummation 
was at last accomplished. But two years more were to elapse 
before the treaty of peace was signed and the war with England 
ended ; and during that period Washington was to give most 
signal illustration of his disinterested patriotism and of his 
political wisdom and foresight. 

Discontent had for some time been manifested by officers 
and soldiers alike, owing to arrearages of pay, and they were 
naturally increased by the apprehension that the army would 
now be disbanded without proper provision being made by con- 
gress for meeting the just claims of the troops. Not a few of 
the officers began to distrust the efficiency of the government 
and of all republican institutions. One of them, "a colonel of 
the army, of a highly respectable character and somewhat ad- 
vanced in life," whose name is given by Irving as Lewis Nicola, 
was put forward to communicate these sentiments to Washing- 
ton, and he even dared to suggest for him the title of King. 
Washington's reply, dated Newburgh, 22 May, 1782, expressed 
the indignation and " abhorrence " with which he had received 
such a suggestion, and rebuked the writer with severity. " I 
am at a loss to conceive," wrote he, " what part of my conduct 
could have given encouragement to an address which to me 
seems big with the greatest mischiefs that can befall my coun- 
try. If I am not deceived in the knowledge of myself, you 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. I? 

could not have found a person to whom your schemes are more 
disagreeable. . . . Let me conjure you, then, if you have any 
regard for your country, concern for yourself or posterity, or 
respect for me, to banish these thoughts from your mind, and 
never communicate, from yourself or any one else, a sentiment 
of the like nature." Nothing more was ever heard of making 
Washington a king. He had sufficiently shown his scorn for 
such an overture. 

The apprehensions of the army, however, were by no means 
quieted. A memorial on the subject of their pay was prepared 
and transmitted to congress in December, 1782, but the resolu- 
tions that congress adopted did not satisfy their expectations. 
A meeting of officers was arranged, and anonymous addresses, 
commonly known as the Newburgh addresses, were issued, to 
rouse the army to resentment. Washington insisted on attend- 
ing the meeting, and delivered an impressive address. Gen. 
Gates was in the chair, and Washington began by apologizing 
for having come. After reading the first paragraph of what he 
had prepared, he begged the indulgence of those present while 
he paused to put on his spectacles, saying, casually, but most 
touchingly, that " he had grown gray in the service of his coun- 
try, and now found himself growing blind." He then proceed- 
ed to read a most forcible and noble paper, in which, after 
acknowledging the just claims of the army on the government, 
and assuring them that those claims would not be disregarded, 
he conjured them " to express their utmost horror and detesta- 
tion of the man who wishes, under any specious pretences, to 
overturn the liberties of our country, and who wickedly at- 
tempts to open the floodgates of civil discord and deluge our 
rising empire in blood." The original autograph of this ever- 
memorable address, just as it came from Washington's own 
pen, is in the archives of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 
and a lithographed copy was published by them, together with 
the letters of eye-witnesses to the scene, as a contribution to 
the centennial papers of 1876. Washington retired at once 
from the meeting, but resolutions were forthwith unanimously 
adopted, on motion of Gen. Knox, seconded by Gen. Putnam, 
reciprocating all his affectionate expressions, and concurring 
entirely in the policy he had proposed. " Every doubt was 
dispelled," says Maj. Shaw in his journal, "and the tide of 
patriotism rolled again in its wonted course." The treaty of 



i6 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 







,:« 



s:^ 



peace was signed in Paris on 20 Jan., 1783. On 17 April fol- 
lowing, a proclamation by congress was received by Washing- 
ton for the cessation of hostilities. On 19 April, the anniver- 
sary of the shedding of the first blood at Lexington, which com- 
pleted the eighth year of the war, the cessation was proclaimed 
at the head of every regiment of the army, after which, said 
Washington's general orders, " the chaplains of the several 

brigades will render thanks to 
Almighty God for all his mer- 
-" ^ •• cies, particularly for his over- 

ruling the wrath of man to his 
own glory, and causing the rage 
of war to cease among the na- 
tions." 

On the following 8th of June, 
in view of the dissolution of the 
army, Washington addressed a 
letter to the governors of the 
several states — a letter full of golden maxims and consum- 
mate wisdom. " The great object," he began, " for which I 
had the honor to hold an appointment in the service of my 
country being accomplished, I am now preparing to return to 
that domestic retirement which, it is well known, I left with 
the greatest reluctance — a retirement for which I have never 
ceased to sigh through a long and painful absence, and in 
which, remote from the noise and trouble of the world, I medi- 
tate to pass the remainder of my life in a state of undisturbed 
repose." Then, after remarking that "this is the favorable 
moment for giving such a tone to the Federal government as 
will enable it to answer the ends of its institution," he pro- 
ceeded to set forth and enlarge upon the four things that he 
conceived to be essential to the well-being, or even the exist- 
ence, of the United States as an independent power : " First, 
an indissoluble union of the states under one federal head ; 
second, a sacred regard to public justice; third, the adoption 
of a proper peace establishment ; and, fourth, the prevalence 
of that pacific and friendly disposition among the people of 
the United States which will induce them to forget their local 
prejudices and policies, to make those mutual concessions 
which are requisite to the general prosperity, and, in some in- 
stances, to sacrifice their individual advantages to the interest 



GEORGE VVA SHING TON. 



17 



of the community. These are the pillars," said Washington, 
"on which the glorious fabric of our independency and na- 
tional character must rest." 

Washington took final leave of the army in general orders 
of 2 Nov., in accordance with a proclamation by congress of 
18 Oct. He accompanied Gov. Clinton in a formal entry into 
New York, after its evacuation by the British, on 25 Nov. On 
4 Dec, after taking affectionate leave of his principal officers 
at Fraunce's tavern, he set off for Annapolis, and there, on 23 
Dec, 1783, he presented himself to "the United States in con- 
gress assembled," and resigned the commission that he had 
received on 17 June, 1775. "Having now finished," said he, 
"the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of 
action, and, bidding an affectionate farewell to this august 
body, under whose orders I have long acted, I here offer my 
commission, and take my leave of all the employments of pub- 
lic life." "You retire," replied the president of congress, 
"from the theatre of action with the blessings of your fellow- 
citizens; but the glory of your virtues will not terminate 
with your military command : it will continue to animate re- 
motest ages." The very next morning, as we are informed by 
Ifving, Washington departed from Annapolis, and " hastened 
to his beloved Mount Vernon, where he arrived the same day, 
on Christmas eve, in a frame of mind suited to enjoy the 
sacred and genial festival." 

Once more, at the close of the fifty-second year of his age, 
Washington was permitted to resume his favorite occupations 
of a farmer and planter, and to devote himself personally to his 
crops and cattle. Indeed, throughout his whole military cam- 
paign, he had kept himself informed of what was going on in 
the way of agriculture at Mount Vernon, and had given care- 
ful directions as to the cultivation of his lands. His corre- 
spondence now engrossed not a little of his time, and he was 
frequently cheered by the visits of his friends. Lafayette was 
among his most welcome guests, and passed a fortnight with 
him, to his great delight. Afterward Washington made a visit 
to his lands on the Kanawha and Ohio rivers, travelling on 
horseback, with his friend and physician. Dr. Craik, nearly seven 
hundred miles, through a wild, mountainous country, and de- 
vising schemes of internal navigation for the advantage of 
Virginia and Maryland. His passion for hunting, also, was 



1 8 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

revived, and Lafayette and others of the French officers sent 
him out fine hounds from their kennels. 

But the condition of his country was never absent from his 
thoughts, and the insufficiency of the existing confederation 
weighed heavily on his mind. In one of his letters he writes: 
"The confederation appears to me little more than a shadow 
without the substance, and congress a migratory body." In 
another letter he says : " I have ever been a friend to adequate 
powers in congress, without which it is evident to me we shall 
never establish a national character. . . . We are either a 
united people under one head and for federal purposes, or we 
are thirteen independent sovereignties, eternally counteracting 
each other." In another letter, to John Jay, he uses still more 
emphatic language: " I do not conceive we can exist long as 
a nation without lodging somewhere a power which will per- 
vade the whole Union in as energetic a manner as the author- 
ity of the state governments extends over the several states. 
. . . Retired as I am from the world, I frankly acknowledge I 
can not feel myself an unconcerned spectator. Yet, having 
happily assisted in bringing the ship into port, and having 
been fairly discharged, it is not my business to embark again 
on the sea of troubles." 

Meantime the insurrection in Massachusetts, commonly 
known as " Shays's rebellion," added greatly to his. anxiety and 
even anguish of mind. In a letter to Madison of 6 Nov., 1786, 
he exclaimed : " No morn ever dawned more favorably than 
ours did, and no day was ever more clouded than the present. 
. . . We are fast verging to anarchy and confusion." Soon 
afterward he poured out the bitterness of his soul to his old 
aide-de-camp, Gen. Humphreys, in still stronger terms : "What, 
gracious God ! is man, that there should be such inconsistency 
and perfidiousness in his conduct ? It was but the other day 
that we were shedding our blood to obtain the constitutions 
under which we now live — constitutions of our own choice and 
making — and now we are unsheathing the sword to overturn 
them." He was thus in full sympathy with the efforts of his 
friends to confer new and greater powers on the Federal 
Government, and he yielded to their earnest solicitations in 
consenting to be named at the head of the Virginia delegates 
to the convention in Philadelphia on 14 May, 1787. Of that 
ever-memorable convention he was unanimously elected presi- 



GEORGE IVASH/NGTOX. in 

dent, and on the following 17th of September he had the 
supreme satisfaction of addressing a letter to congress an- 
nouncing the adoption of the constitution of the United States, 
which had been signed on that day. " In all our deliberations 
on this subject," he said in that letter, "we kept steadily in 
our view that which appears to us the greatest interest of 
every true American — the consolidation of our Union — in which 
is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, and perhaps our na- 
tional existence." 

This constitution having passed the ordeal of congress 
and been ratified and adopted by the people, through the 
conventions of the states, nothing remained but to organize 
the government in conformity with its provisions. As early 
as 2 July, 1788, congress had been notified that the neces- 
sary approval of nine states had been obtained, but not until 
13 Sept. was a day appointed for the choice of electors of 
president. That day was the first Wednesday of the following 
January, while the beginning of proceedings under the new 
constitution was postponed until the first Wednesday of March, 
which chanced in that year to be the 4th of March. Not, 
however, until i April was there a quorum for business in the 
house of representatives, and not until 6 April was the senate 
organized. On that day, in the presence of the two houses, 
the votes for president and vice-president were opened and 
counted, when Washington, having received every vote from 
the ten states that took part in the election, was declared 
president of the United States. On 14 April he received at 
Mount Vernon the official announcement of his election, and 
on the morning of the i6th he set out for New York. "Re- 
luctant," as he said, "in the evening of life to exchange a 
peaceful abode for an ocean of difficulties," he bravely added : 
" Be the voyage long or short, although I may be deserted by 
all men, integrity and firmness shall never forsake me." Well 
does Bancroft exclaim, after recounting these details in his 
" History of the Constitution " : " But for him the country 
could not have achieved its independence ; but for him it could 
not have formed its Union ; and now but for him it could not 
set the government in successful motion." 

Reaching New York on the 23d, after a continuous tri- 
umphal journey through Alexandria, Baltimore, Wilmington, 
Philadelphia, and Trenton, he was welcomed by the two houses 
3 



20 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



of congress, by the governor of the state, the magistrates of 
the city, and by great masses of the people. The city was 
illuminated in his honor. But he proceeded on foot from the 
barge that had brought him across the bay to the house of the 
president of the late confederation, which had been appointed 
for his residence. John Adams had been installed in the 
chair of the senate, as vice-president of the United States, on 
2 1 April, but congress could not get ready for the inaugura- 
tion of the president until the 30th. On that day the oath of 
ofifice was administered to Washington by Robert R. Living- 
ston, chancellor of the state of New York, in the presence of 
the two houses of congress, on a balcony in front of the hall 
in which congress held its sittings, where a statue has recently 
been placed. Washington then retired to the senate-chamber 
and delivered his inaugural address. " It would be peculiarly 
improper to omit," said he, " in this first official act, my fervent 
supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the uni- 
verse, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose 
providential aids can supply every human defect — that his 
benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of 

the people of the United States a 
government instituted by themselves. 
. . . No people can be bound to ac- 
knowledge the invisible hand which 
conducts the affairs of man more 
than the people of the United States. 
Every step by which they have ad- 
vanced to the character of an inde- 
pendent nation seems to have been 
distinguished by some token of provi- 
dential agency. . . . These reflections, 
arising out of the present crisis, have 
forced themselves too strongly on my 
mind to be suppressed. You will join 
with me, I trust, in thinking that there 
are none under the influence of which 
the proceedings of a new and free government can more 
auspiciously commence." In accordance with those sentiments, 
at the close of the ceremony, Washington and both branches 
of congress were escorted to St. Paul's chapel, at the corner 
of Broadway and Fulton street, where the chaplain of the 




GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



21 



senate read prayers suited to the occasion, after which they 
all attended the president to his mansion near Franklin square. 

Thus began the administration of Washington, as first 
president of the United States, on 30 April, 1789. This is a 
date never to be forgotten in American history, and it would 
be most happy if the 30th of April could be substituted for the 
4th of March as the inauguration-day of the second century 
of our constitutional existence. 
It would add two months to the 
too short second session of con- 
gress, give a probability of pro- 
pitious weather for the ceremony, 
and be a perpetual commemora- 
tion of the day on which Wash- 
ington entered upon his great 
office, and our national govern- 
ment was practically organized. '-^^^ 
An amendment to the constitu- 
tion making this change has twice 
been formally proposed and has 
passed the U. S. senate, but has 
failed of adoption in the house of 

representatives. From first to last, Washington's influence in 
conciliating all differences of opinion in regard to the rightful 
interpretation and execution of the new constitution was most 
effective. The recently printed journal of William Maclay, a 
senator from Pennsylvania in the ist congress, says, in allusion 
to some early controversies : " The president's amiable deport- 
ment, however, smoothes and sweetens everything." Count 
Moustier, the French minister, in writing home to his govern- 
ment, five weeks after the inauguration, says: "The opinion 
of Gen. Washington was of such weight that it alone con- 
tributed more than any other measure to cause the present 
constitution to be adopted. The extreme confidence in his 
patriotism, his integrity, and his intelligence, forms to-day its 
principal support. . . . All is hushed in presence of the trust 
of the people in the saviour of the country." 

Washington had to confront not a few of the same perplexi- 
ties that all his successors have experienced in a still greater de- 
gree in regard to appointments to office. But at the earliest 
moment he adopted rules and principles on this subject which 




22 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

might well be commended to presidents and governors in later 
days. In a letter to his friend James Bowdoin, of Massachusetts, 
bearing date 9 May, 1789, less than six weeks after his inaugura- 
tion, he used language that might fitly serve as an introduction 
to the civil-service reform manual of the present hour. " No 
part of my duty," he says, *' will be more delicate, and in 
many instances more unpleasing, than that of nominating or 
appointing persons to office. It will undoubtedly often happen 
that there will be several candidates for the same office, whose 
pretensions, ability, and integrity may be nearly equal, and 
who will come forward so equally supported in every respect 
as almost to require the aid of supernatural intuition to fix 
upon the right. I shall, however, in all events, have the 
satisfaction to reflect that I entered upon my administration 
unconfined by a single engagement, uninfluenced by any ties 
of blood or friendship, and with the best intentions and fullest 
determination to nominate to office those persons only who, 
upon every consideration, were the most deserving, and who 
would probably execute their several functions to the interest 
and credit of the American Union, if such characters could be 
found by my exploring every avenue of information respect- 
ing their merits and pretensions that it was in my power to 
obtain." Appointing Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, as his 
secretary of state ; Alexander Hamilton, of New York, as his 
secretary of the treasury; and Henry Knox, of Massachusetts, 
as his secretary of war, he gave clear indication at the outset 
that no sectional interests or prejudices were to control or 
shape his policy. Under Jefferson, the foreign affairs of the 
country were administered with great discretion and ability. 
Under Hamilton, the financial affairs of the country were 
extricated from the confusion and chaos into which they had 
fallen, and the national credit was established on a firm basis. 
The preamble of the very first revenue bill, signed by Wash- 
ington on 4 July, 1789, was a notable expression of the views 
entertained in regard to the powers and duties of the new 
government in the regulation of trade and the laying and 
collecting of taxes : " Whereas, it is necessary for the support 
of government, for the discharge of the debts of the United 
States, and the encouragement and protection of manufac- 
turers, that duties be laid on goods, wares, and merchandise 
imported, Be it enacted, etc." The incorporation of a national 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



23 



bank and kindred measures of the highest interest soon fol- 
lowed. The supreme court of the United States was organ- 
ized with John Jay as its first chief justice. Important amend- 
ments to the constitution were framed and recommended to 
the states for adoption, and congress continued in session till 
the close of September. 

But in the course of the summer Washington had a severe 
illness, and for some days his life was thought to be in danger. 
Confined to his bed for six weeks, it was more than twelve 
weeks before he was restored. With a view to the re-establish- 
ment of his health, as well as for seeing the country, he then 
set off on a tour to the eastern states, and visited Boston, 
Portsmouth, New Haven, and other places. He was welcomed 
everywhere with unbounded enthusiasm. No " royal prog- 
ress " in any country ever equalled this tour in its demonstra- 
tions of veneration and affection. A similar tour with the 
same manifestations was made by him in the southern states 
the next year. As the four years of his first term drew to an 
end, he was seriously inclined to withdraw from further public 
service, but Jefferson and Hamilton alike, with all their respect- 
ive followers, while they differed widely on so many other 
matters, were of one mind in earnestly remonstrating against 
Washington's retirement. " The confidence of the whole coun- 
try," wrote Jefferson, "is centred in you. . . . North and south 
will hang together if they have you to hang on." "It is 
clear," wrote Hamilton, " that if you continue in office nothing 
materially mischievous is to be apprehended ; if you quit, 
much is to be dreaded. ... I trust, and I pray God, that you 
will determine to make a further sacrifice of your tranquillity 
and happiness to the public good." Washington could not 
find it in his heart to resist such appeals, and allowed himself 
to be again a candidate. He was chosen unanimously by the 
electors, and took the oath of office again on 4 March, 1793. 
He had but just entered on this second term of the presidency 
when the news reached him that France had declared war 
against England and Holland. He lost no time in announcing 
his purpose to maintain a strict neutrality toward the belliger- 
ent powers, and this policy was unanimously sustained by his 
cabinet. His famous proclamation of neutrality was accord- 
ingly issued on 22 April, and soon became the subject of 
violent partisan controversy throughout the Union. It gave 



24 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



occasion to the masterly essays of Hamilton and Madison, 
under the signatures of " Pacificus " and " Helvidius," and con- 
tributed more than anything else, perhaps, to the original for- 
mation of the Federal and Republican parties. The wisdom 
of Washington was abundantly justified by the progress of 
events, but he did not escape the assaults of partisan bitterness. 
Mr. Jay, still chief justice, was sent to England as minister 
early in 1794, and his memorable treaty added fuel to the flame. 
Meantime a tax on distilled spirits had encountered much 
opposition in various parts of the country, and in August, 1794, 
was forcibly resisted and defied by a large body of armed m- 
surgents in the western counties of Pennsylvania. Washington 
issued a proclamation calling out the militia of the neighboring 
states, and left home to cross the mountains and lead the 
troops in person. But the insurrection happily succumbed at 
his approach, and his presence became unnecessary. The arro- 
gant and offensive conduct of the French minister, M. Genet, 
irreconcilable dissensions in the cabinet, and renewed agita- 
tions and popular discontents growmg out of the Jay treaty, 
gave Washmgton no little trouble in these latter years of his 
administration, and he looked forward with eagerness to a 
release from official cares. Having made up his mind un- 
changeably to decline another election as president, he thought 
It fit to announce that decision in the most formal manner. 
He had consulted Madison at the close of his first term in 
regard to an address declining a second election. He now 
sought the advice and counsel of Alexander Hamilton, no 
longer a member of the cabinet, and the farewell address was 
prepared and published nearly six months before his official 
term had expired. That immortal paper has often been printed 
with the date of 17 Sept., 1796, and special interest has been 
expressed in the coincidence of the date of the address with 
the date of the adoption of the constitution of the United 
States. But, as a matter of fact, the address bears date 19 
Sept., 1796, as may be seen in the autograph original now in 
the Lenox library. New York. Mr. James Lenox purchased 
that precious origmal from the family of the printer Claypoole, 
by whom it was published in Philadelphia, and to whom the 
manuscript, wholly in Washington's handwriting, with all its in- 
terlineations, corrections, and erasures, was given by Washing- 
ton himself. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



25 




On the following 4th of March, Washington was present at 
the inauguration of his successor, John Adams, and soon after- 
ward went with his family to Mount Vernon, to resume his 
agricultural occupations. Serious difficulties with France were 
soon developed, and war became im- 
minent. A provisional army was au- 
thorized by congress to meet the exi- 
gency, and all eyes were again turned 
toward Washington as its leader. Presi- 
dent Adams wrote to him : " We must 
have your name, if you will permit us 
to use it. There will be more efficacy 
in it than in many an army." Hamil- 
ton urged him to make "this further, 
this very great sacrifice." And thus, 
on 3 July, 1798, Washington, yielding 
to the entreaty of friends and a sense 

of duty to his country, was once more commissioned as " Lieu- 
tenant-General and Commander-in-chief of all the armies raised, 
or to be raised, in the United States." The organization and 
arrangement of this new army now engrossed his attention. 
Deeply impressed with the great responsibility that had been 
thrust upon him, and having selected Alexander Hamilton as 
his chief of staff, to the serious disappointment of his old friend 
Gen. Knox, he entered at once into the minutest details of the 
preparation for war, with all the energy and zeal of his earlier 
and more vigorous days. 

Most happily this war with our late gallant ally was 
averted. Washington, however, did not live to receive the 
assurance of a result that he so earnestly desired. Riding 
over his farms, on 12 Dec, to give directions to the managers 
of his estate, he was overtaken by showers of rain and sleet, 
and returned home wet and chilled. The next day he suffered 
from a hoarse, sore throat, followed by an ague at night. His 
old physician and surgeon, Dr. Craik, who had been with him 
in peace and in war, was summoned from Alexandria the next 
morning, and two other physicians were called into consulta- 
tion during the day. At four o'clock in the afternoon he re- 
quested his wife, who was constantly at his bedside, to bring 
him two papers from his study, one of which he gave back to 
her as his will. At six o'clock he said to the three physicians 



26 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 




around him : " I feel myself going ; I thank you for your at- 
tentions, but I pray you to take no more trouble about me." 
He had previously said to Dr. Craik : " I die hard, but I am 
not afraid to go." About ten o'clock he succeeded with diffi- 
culty in giving some directions about his funeral to Mr. Lear, 

his secretary, and on Mr. Lear's 
assuring him that he was un- 
derstood, he uttered his last 
words : " It is well." And thus, 
between ten and eleven o'clock 
on Saturday night, 14 Dec, 
1799, the end came, and his 
spirit returned to God who 
gave it. 

The funeral took place on 
the i8th. Such troops as were 
in the neighborhood formed the escort of the little procession; 
the general's favorite horse was led behind the bier, the Free- 
masons performed their ceremonies, the Rev. Thomas Davis 
read the service and made a brief address, a schooner lying in 
the Potomac fired minute-guns, the relatives and friends within 
reach, including Lord Fairfax and the corporation of Alex- 
andria, were in attendance, and the body was deposited in the 
vault at Mount Vernon. At Mount Vernon it has remained to 
this day. Virginia would never consent to its removal to the 
stately vault prepared for it beneath the capitol at Washington. 
Congress was in session at Philadelphia, and the startling news 
of Washington's death only reached there on the day of his 
funeral. The next morning John Marshall, then a representa- 
tive from Virginia, afterward for thirty-four years chief justice 
of the supreme court of the United States, announced the 
death in the house of representatives, concluding a short but 
admirable tribute to his illustrious friend with resolutions pre- 
pared by General Henry Lee, which contained the grand 
words that have ever since been associated with Washington : 
" First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his 
fellow-citizens." Gen. Lee pronounced a eulogy, by order of 
both houses of congress, on 26 Dec, in which he changed the 
last word of his own famous phrase to '* countrymen," and it is 
so given in the eulogy as published by congress. Meantime 
congress adopted a resolution recommending to the people of 



GEORGE U'A SHING TON, 



27 



the United States to assemble on the following 22d of Febru- 
ary, in such manner as should be convenient, to testify pub- 
licly by eulogies, orations, and discourses, or by public prayers, 
their grief for the death of George Washington. In conformity 
with this recommendation, eulogies or sermons were delivered, 
or exercises of some sort held, in almost every city, town, vil- 
lage, or hamlet, throughout the land. Such was the first ob- 
servance of Washington's birthday ; — thenceforth to be a na- 
tional holiday. But not in our own land only was his death 
commemorated. Napoleon Bonaparte, then first consul, an- 
nounced it to the army of France, and ordered all the standards 
and flags throughout the republic to be bound with crape for ten 
days, during which a funeral oration was pronounced in pres- 
ence of the first consul and all the civil and military authori- 
ties, in what is now the Hotel des Invalides. More striking 
still is the fact, mentioned by Jared Sparks, that the British 
fleet, consisting of nearly sixty ships of the line, which was 
lying at Torbay, England, under the 
command of Lord Bridport, lowered 
their flags half-mast on hearing the 
intelligence of Washington's death. 
In later years the tributes to the 
memory of Washington have been 
such as no other man of modern or 
even of ancient history has com- 
manded. He has sometimes been 
compared, after the manner of Plu- 
tarch, with Epaminondas, or Timo- 
leon, or Alfred the Great of Eng- 
land. But an eminent living English 
historian has recently and justly said 
that the place of Washington in the 
history of mankind " is well-nigh 
without a fellow." Indeed, the gen- 
eral judgment of the v;orld has given ready assent to the care- 
fully weighed, twice repeated declaration of Lord Brougham : 
" It will be the duty of the historian and sage in all ages to let 
no occasion pass of commemorating this illustrious man ; and, 
until time shall be no more, will a test of the progress which 
our race has made in wisdom and virtue be derived from the 
veneration paid to the immortal name of Washington ! " Mod- 




28 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

est, disinterested, generous, just, of clean hands and a pure 
heart, self-denying and self-sacrificing, seeking nothing for 
himself, declining all remuneration beyond the reimbursement 
of his outlays, scrupulous to a farthing in keeping his accounts, 
of spotless integrity, scorning gifts, charitable to the needy, 
forgiving injuries and injustice, fearless, heroic with a pru- 
dence ever governing his impulses and a wisdom ever guiding 
his valor, true to his friends, true to his whole country, true to 
himself, fearing God, believing in Christ, no stranger to private 
devotion or public worship, or to the holiest offices of the 
church to which he belonged, but ever gratefully recognizing a 
divine aid and direction in all that he attempted and in all 
that he accomplished — what epithet, what attribute, could be 
added to that consummate character to commend it as an ex- 
ample above all other characters in merely human history ? 

Washington's most important original papers were be- 
queathed to his favorite nephew, Bushrod Washington, and 
were committed by him to Chief-Justice John Marshall, by 
whom an elaborate life, in five volumes, was published in 1804. 
Abridged editions of this great work have been published more 
recently. " The Writings of Washington," with a life, were 
published by Jared Sparks (12 vols., Boston, i834-'7). A new 
edition of Washington's complete works in 14 vols., edited by 
Worthington C. Ford, containing many letters and papers now 
published for the first time, has very recently been com- 
pleted (New York, i888-'93). Biographies have also been 
published by Mason L. Weems, David Ramsay, James K. 
Paulding, Charles W. Upham, Joel T. Headley, Caroline M. 
Kirkland, and Edward Everett Hale. Benson J. Lossing made 
an interesting contribution to the illustration of the same 
theme by his " Mount Vernon and its Associations " in 1859, 
Meanwhile the genius of Washington Irving has illuminated 
the whole story of Washington's life, public and private, and 
thrown around it the charms of exquisite style and lucid nar- 
rative (5 vols., New York, i855-'9). An abridgment and re- 
vision of Irving's work, by John Fiske (New York, 1888), 
and "General Washington," by Bradley T. Johnston (1894), 
have recently appeared. A sketch was prepared by Edward 
Everett, at the request of Lord Macaulay, for the eighth 
edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica " (1853-1860), which 
was afterward published in a separate volume. To Edward 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



29 



Everett, too, belongs the principal credit of having saved 
Mount Vernon from the auctioneer's hammer, and secured its 
preservation, under the auspices of the Ladies' Mount Vernon 
association, as a place of pilgrimage. He wrote fifty-two arti- 
cles for the New York " Ledger," and delivered his lecture on 
Washington many times, contributing the proceeds to the 
Mount Vernort fund. 

The marble statue in the capitol at Richmond, Va. (for bust 
of this, see page 20), by the French sculptor Houdon, from 
life, must be named first among the standard likenesses of 
Washington. Excellent portraits of him by John Trumbull, by 
both the Peales, and by Gilbert Stuart, are to be seen in many 
public galleries. Stuart's head leaves nothing to be desired in 
the way of dignity and grandeur. Among the numerous monu- 
ments that have been erected to his memory may be mentioned 
the noble column in Baltimore ; the colossal statue in the 
Capitol grounds at Washington, by Horatio Greenough; the 
splendid group in Richmond, surmounted by an equestr' 
statue, by Thomas Crawford ; the marble statue in the M/ .-.. 
chusetts State-house, by Sir Francis Chantrey ; the equestrian 
statue in the Boston public garden, by Thomas Ball; the 
equestrian statue in Union square. New York, by Henry K. 
Brown ; and, lastly, the matchless obelisk at Washington, of 
which the corner-stone was laid in 1848, upon which the cap- 
stone was placed, at the height of 555 feet, in 1884, and which 
was dedicated by cong'ress on 21 Feb., 1885, as Washington's 
birthday that year fell on Sunday. See vignette (page 27), and 
also illustration of his birthplace by Charles C. Perkins (page 
3) ; a drawing of the locality by Gen. William T. Sherman (page 
4), the church at Pohick (page 11), the Newburgh headquarters 
(page 16), Mount Vernon (page 32), Washington's tomb, (page 
26), a portrait of him in youth (page 7) ; also the pictures by 
Trumbull (page 13), Wertmiiller (page 21), and Du Simitiere 
(page 25). The steel engraving, which appears as a frontis- 
piece to this volume, is from Stuart's original in the Boston 
Athenaeum. The vignette which follows of Mrs. Washington, 
is from the portrait by the same distinguished artist. 

His wife, Martha, born in New Kent county, Va., in May, 
1732; died at Mount Vernon, Va., 22 May, 1802, was the 
daughter of Col. John Dandridge, a planter in New Kent 



30 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



county. Martha was fairly educated by private tutors, and 
became an expert performer on the spinet. She was intro- 
duced to the vice-regal court, during the administration of Sir 
William Gooch, at fifteen years of age, and in June, 1749, mar- 
ried Daniel Parke Custis, a wealthy planter, with whom she 
removed to his residence, the White House, on Pamunkey 
river. They had four children, two of whom died in infancy, 
and in 1757 Mr. Custis also died, leaving his widow one of the 
wealthiest women in Virginia. About a year after her hus- 
band's death she met Col. Washington, who was visiting at the 
house of Maj. William Chamberlayne, where she too was a 

guest. In May, 1758, they became 
engaged, but the marriage was de- 
layed by Col. Washington's northern 
campaign, and it was not till Janu- 
ary, 1759, that it was solemnized, at 
St. Peter's church, New Kent county, 
the Rev. John Mossum performing 
the ceremony. The wedding was 
one of the most brilliant that had 
ever been seen in a church in Vir- 
ginia. The bridegroom wore a suit 
of blue cloth, the coat lined with red 
silk, and ornamented with silver 
trnnmings; his waistcoat was em- 
broidered white satin, his knee-buckles were of gold, and his hair 
was powdered. The bride was attired in a white satin quilted 
petticoat, a heavily corded white silk over-dress, diamond 
buckles, and pearl ornaments. The governor, many members 
of the legislature, British officers, and the neighboring gentry 
were present in full court dress. Washington's body-servant, 
Bishop, a tall negro, to whom he was much attached and who 
had accompanied him on all his military campaigns, stood in 
the porch, clothed in the scarlet uniform of a soldier of the 
royal army in the time of George II. The bride and her three 
attendants drove back to the White House in a coach drawn 
by six horses led by liveried postilions. Col. Washington and 
an escort of cavaliers riding by its side. Mrs. Washington's life 
at Mount Vernon for the subsequent seventeen years partook 
much of the style of the English aristocracy. She was a thor- 
ough housekeeper, and entertained constantly. Her daughter, 




0^. ^^^^%^/>^ 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



31 



Martha Parke Custis, who died in the seventeenth year of her 
age, was known as the "dark lady," on account of her bru- 
nette complexion, and was greatly loved by the neighboring 
poor, to whom she frequently ministered. On her well pre- 
served portrait, painted by Charles Wilson Peale, is inscribed 
" A Virginia Beauty." 

Mrs. Washington ardently sympathized with her husband in 
his patriotic measures. To a kinswoman, who deprecated 
what she called "his folly," Mrs. Washington wrote in 1774: 
" Yes, I foresee consequences — dark days, domestic happiness 
suspended, social enjoyments abandoned, and eternal separa- 
tions on earth possible. But my mind is made up, my heart is in 
the cause. George is right ; he is always right. God has prom- 
ised to protect the righteous, and I will trust him." Patrick 
Henry and Edmund Pendleton spent a day and night at Mount 
Vernon in August, 1774, on their way to congress. Pendleton 
afterward wrote to a friend : " Mrs. Washington talked like a 
Spartan to her son on his going to battle. ' I hope you will all 
stand firm,' she said ; ' I know George will.' " After her husband 
became commander-in-chief she was burdened with many cares. 
He visited Mount Vernon only twice during the war. She 
joined him at Cambridge, Mass., in 1775, subsequently accom- 
panying Gen. Washington to New York and Philadelphia, and 
whenever it was possible joined him in camp. During the win- 
ter at Valley Forge she suffered every privation m common with 
the officers, and " was busy from morning till night providing 
comforts for the sick soldiers." Although previous to the war 
she had paid much attention to her attire, as became her wealth 
and station, while it continued she dressed only in garments 
that were spun and woven by her servants at Mount Vernon. 
At a ball in New Jersey that was given in her honor she wore 
one of these simple gowns and a white kerchief, "as an exam- 
ple of economy to the women of the Revolution." Her last 
surviving child, John Parke Custis, died in November, 1781, 
leaving four children. The two younger, Eleanor Parke Custis 
and George Washington Parke Custis, Gen. Washington at 
once adopted. After Mrs. Washington left headquarters at 
Newburgh in 1782, she did not again return to camp life. She 
was residing at Mount Vernon (see illustration) at the time 
Washington was chosen president of the United States. When 
she assumed the duties of mistress of the executive mansion in 



32 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 




^f^::^4'll^^r^^i!.^^^^f1^^^^c'^^-^ - 



New York she was fifty-seven years old, but still retained 
traces of beauty, and bore herself with great personal dignity. 
She instituted levees, that she ever afterward continued, on 
Friday evening of each week from eight to nine o'clock. 

" None were admit- 
ted but those who 
had a right of en- 
trance by official sta- 
tion or established 
character," and full 
dress was required. 
During the second 
term of the president 
they resided in Phila- 
delphia, where their 
public receptions were conducted as those in New York had 
been. An English gentleman, describing her at her own table 
in 1794, says : " Mrs. Washington struck me as being older than 
the president. She was extremely simple in dress, and wore 
her gray hair turned up under a very plain cap." She greatly 
disliked official life, and rejoiced when her husband refused a 
third term in 1796. She resided at Mount Vernon during the re- 
mainder of her life, occupied with her domestic duties, of which 
she was fond, and in entertaining the numerous guests that 
visited her husband. She survived him two and a half years. 
Before her death she destroyed her entire correspondence with 
Gen. Washington. "Thus," says her grandson and biographer, 
George Washington Parke Custis, "proving her love for him, 
for she would not permit that the confidence they had shared 
together should be made public." See " Memoirs of the Mother 
and Wife of Washington," by Margaret C. Conkling (Auburn, 
N. Y., 185 1), " Mary and Martha," by Benson J. Lossing (New 
York, 1887), and "The Story of Mary Washington," by Marion 
Harland (Boston, 1892). 



His adopted son, George Washington Parke Custis, 
author, born at Mount Airy, Md., 30 April, 1781 ; died at Ar- 
lington House, Fairfax co., Va., 10 Oct., 1857. His father, 
Col. John Parke Custis, the son of Mrs. Washington by her 
first husband, was aide-de-camp to Washington at the siege of 
Yorktown, and died 5 Nov., 1781, aged twenty-eight. The 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



33 



son had his early home at Mount Vernon, pursued his classical 
studies at St. John's College and at Princeton, and remained a 
member of Washington's family until the death of Mrs. Wash- 
ington in 1802, when he built Arlington House on an estate of 
1,000 acres near Washington, which he had inherited from his 
father. After the death in 1852 of his sister, Eleanor Parke 
Custis, wife of Major Lawrence Lewis, he was the sole surviving 
member of Washington's family, and his residence was for 
many years a favorite resort, owing to the interesting relics of 
that family which it contained. Mr. Custis married in early 
life Mary Lee Fitzhugh, of Virginia, and left a daughter, who 
married Robert E. Lee. The Arlington estate was confiscated 
during the civil war, and is now held as national property and 
is the site of a national soldiers' cemetery. The house is rep- 
resented in the accompanying illustration. Mr. Custis was in 
his early days an elo- 
quent and effective ^_,^rf*.&.-s> ji^A'^'- 
speaker. He wrote 
orations and plays, 
and during his lat- 
ter years executed 
a number of large 
paintings of Revolu- 
tionary battles. His 
" Recollections of 
Washington," origin- 
ally contributed to the " National Intelligencer," was published 
in book-form, with a memoir by his daughter and numerous 
notes by Benson J. Lossing (New York, i860). 




Washington's brother-in-law. Fielding Lewis, patriot, 
born in Spottsylvania county, Va., in 1726; died in Fredericks- 
burg, Va., in December, 1781. He was the proprietor of half 
the town of Fredericksburg, Va., of which he was the first 
mayor, and of much of the adjoining territory, and during the 
Revolution he was an ardent patriot, superintending a large 
manufactory of arms in that neighborhood; the site of this 
establishment is still known as " Gunny Green." He was a 
magistrate and a member of the Virginia legislature for many 
years. He married Elizabeth, sister of George Washington, 
and built for her a mansion that is still standing, called Ken- 



34 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



more House, which was handsomely constructed and orna- 
mented with carvings that were brought from England for 
the purpose. His wife was majestic in person and lovely 
in mental and moral attributes. Later in life she so much 
resembled her brother George that, by putting on his long 
military coat and his hat, she could easily have been mis- 
taken for the general. Mary, the mother of Washington, died 
on Mr. Lewis's farm and is buried there. Of their sons, George 
was a captain in Washington's life-guard, Robert one of his 
private secretaries, and Andrew was aide to Gen. Daniel Mor- 
gan in suppressmg the whiskey insurrection in Pennsylvania. 
Another son, Lawrence, was Washington's favorite nephew. 



His wife, Eleanor Parke Custis, born at Abingdon, Fair- 
fax CO., Va., in March, 1779 ; died at Audley, Clarke co., Va., 
15 July, 1852, was the daughter of John Parke Custis, the son 
of Martha Washington. At the death 
of her father, in 1781, she, with her 
brother George, was adopted by Gen. 
Washington, and lived at Mount Ver- 
non. Eleanor was regarded as the most 
brilliant and beautiful young woman of 
her day, the pride of her grandmother, 
and the favorite of Washington, who 
was the playmate of her childhood and 
the confidant of her girlhood. How- 
ever abstracted, she could always com- 
mand his attention, and he would put 
aside the most important matter to at- 
tend to her demands. She was accom- 
plished in drawing, and a good musi- 
cian. Washington presented her with a 
harpsichord at the cost of a thousand dollars. Irving relates an 
anecdote that illustrates their relations: "She was romantic, 
and fond of wandering in the moonlight alone in the woods. 
Mrs. Washington thought this unsafe, and forced from her a 
promise that she would not visit the woods again unaccompa- 
nied, but she was brought one evening into the drawing-room 
where her grandmother, seated in her arm-chair, began in the 
presence of the general a severe reproof. Poor Nellie was re- 
minded of her promise, and taxed with her delinquency. She 




L .^ /^^^S-'^^^-"'^^*^ 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



35 



admitted her fault and essayed no excuse, moving to retire 
from the room. She was just closing the door when she over- 
heard Washington attempting in a lo^.' voice to intercede in 
her behalf. ' My dear,' he observed, ' 1 would say no more — 
perhaps she was not alone.' His intercession stopped Miss 
Nellie in her retreat. She reopened the aoor and advanced up 
to the general with a firm step. 'Sir,' s .id she, 'you brought 
me up to speak the truth, and, when I toU' grandmamma I was 
alone, I hope you believe I was alone.' U ishington made one 
of his most magnanimous bows. ' My chiU; ' he replied, * I beg 
your pardon.'" In February, 1799, she n-arried his nephew, 
Lawrence Lewis, the son of his sister Elizab«;th. Young Lewis, 
after Washington's retirement from public -ife, had resided at 
Mount Vernon, and after their marriage u cy continued there 
till the death of Mrs. Washington in May, f8o2. The portrait 
of Mrs. Lewis is from the picture by Gilbert Stuart, and is now 
in the possession of her descendant, Edwin A. Stevens Lewis, 
who is also the owner of the valuable silver service presented 
to her by Gen. Washington. 

Their grandson, Edward Parke Custis Lewis, diploma- 
tist, born in Audley, Clarke co., Va., 7 Feb., 1337 ; died in Ho- 
boken, N. J., 3 Sept., 1892. He was educated at the University 
of Virginia, and studied law, but subsequently became a 
planter. He served throughout the War of the Rebellion in 
the Confederate army, rising to the rank of colonel, and for 
fifteen months was a prisoner of war. He settled in Hoboken, 
in 1875, having previously married Mrs. Mary Garnett, eldest 
daughter of Edwin A. Stevens, of New Jersey, and widow of 
Muscoe R. H. Garnett, Member of Congress from Virginia, 
served in the New Jersey legislature in 1877, was a delegate to 
the Democratic national convention in 1880, and in 1885 was 
appointed by President Cleveland United States minister to 
Portugal. 



JOHN ADAMS. 



John Adams, second president of the United States, born 
in that part of the t>Hvn of Braintree, Mass., which has since 
been set off as the town of Quincy. 31 Oct., 1735 ; died there, 
4 July, 1826. His great-grandfather, Henry Adams, received 
a grant of about 40 acres of land in Braintree in 1636, and soon 
afterward emigrate! from Devonshire, England, with his eight 
sons. John Adams, the subject of this sketch, was the eldest 
son of John Adam.^ and Susanna Boylston, daughter of Peter 
Boylston, of Bro'-klme. His father, one of the selectmen of 
Braintree and a deacon of the church, was a thrifty farmer, and 
at his death in i'6c his estate was appraised at ;!^i,33o 9s. 6d., 

which in those days 
might have been re- 
garded as a moderate 
competence. It was 
the custom of the 
family to send the 
eldest son to col- 
lege, and according- 
ly John was gradu- 
ated at Harvard in 
1755. Previous to 
1773 the graduates 
of Harvard were arranged in lists, not alphabetically or in order 
of merit, but according to the social standing of their parents. 
In a class of twenty-four members John thus stood fourteenth. 
One of his classmates was John Wentworth, afterward royal 
governor of New Hampshire, and then of Nova Scotia. After 
taking his degree and while waiting to make his choice of a 
profession, Adams took charge of the grammar school at 
Worcester. It was the year of Braddock's defeat, when the 
smouldering fires of a century of rivalry between France and 





^m Jd^w 



JOHN ADAMS. yj 

England broke out in a blaze of war which was forever to 
settle the question of the primacy of the English race in the 
modern world. Adams took an intense interest in the struggle, 
and predicted that if we could only drive out " these turbulent 
Gallics," our numbers would in another century exceed those 
of the British, and all Europe would be unable to subdue us. 
In sending him to college his family seem to have hoped that 
he would become a clergyman; but he soon found himself too 
much of a free thinker to feel at home in the pulpit of that 
day. When accused of Arminianism, he cheerfully admitted 
the charge. Later in life he was sometimes called a Unitarian, 
but of dogmatic Christianity he seems to have had as little as 
Franklin or Jefferson. "Where do we find," he asks, "a pre- 
cept in the gospel requiring ecclesiastical synods, convocations, 
councils, decrees, creeds, confessions, oaths, subscriptions, and 
whole cart-loads of other trumpery that we find religion en- 
cumbered with in these days ? " In this mood he turned from 
the ministry and began the study of law at Worcester. There 
was then a strong prejudice against lawyers in New England, 
but the profession throve lustily nevertheless, so litigious were 
the people. In 1758 Adams began the practice of his profes- 
sion in Suffolk CO., having his residence in Braintree. In 1764 
he was married to Abigail Smith, of Weymouth, a lady of social 
position higher than his own and endowed with most rare and 
admirable qualities of head and heart. In this same year the 
agitation over the proposed stamp act was begun, and on the 
burning questions raised by this ill-considered measure Adams 
had already taken sides. When James Otis in 1761 delivered 
his memorable argument against writs of assistance, John 
Adams was present in the court-room, and the fiery eloquence 
of Otis wrought a wonderful effect upon him. As his son after- 
ward said, " it was like the oath of Hamilcar administered to 
Hannibal." In his old age John Adams wrote, with reference 
to this scene, " Every man of an immense crowded audience 
appeared to me to go away, as I did, ready to take arms against 
writs of assistance. Then and there was the first scene of the 
first act of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain. 
Then and there the child Independence was born." When the 
stamp act was passed, in 1765, Adams took a prominent part in 
a town-meeting at Braintree, where he presented resolutions 
which were adopted word for word by more than forty towns 



38 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 




in Massachusetts. The people refused to make use of stamps, 
and the business of the inferior courts was carried on without 
them, judges and lawyers agreeing to connive at the absence 
of the stamps. In the supreme court, however, where Thomas 
Hutchinson was chief justice, the judges refused to transact 

any business without stamps. This 
threatened serious interruption to 
business, and the town of Boston 
addressed a memorial to the gov- 
ernor and council, praying that the 
supreme court might overlook the 
absence of stamps. John Adams 
was unexpectedly chosen, along 
with Jeremiah Gridley and James 
Otis, as -counsel for the town, to 
argue the case in favor of the me- 
morial. Adams delivered the open- 
ing argument, and took the decisive 
ground that the stamp act was ipso 
facto null and void, since it was a 
measure of taxation which the peo- 
ple of the colony had taken no share in passing. No such 
measure, he declared, could be held as binding in America, and 
parliament had no right to tax the colonies. The governor 
and council refused to act in the matter, but presently the 
repeal of the stamp act put an end to the disturbance for a 
while. About this time Mr. Adams began writing articles for 
the Boston " Gazette." Four of these articles, dealing with the 
constitutional rights of the people of New England, were 
afterward republished under the somewhat curious title of 
"An Essay on the Canon and Feudal Law." After ten years 
of practice, Mr. Adams's business had become quite extensive, 
and in 1768 he moved into Boston. The attorney-general of 
Massachusetts, Jonathan Sewall, now offered him the lucrative 
office of advocate-general in the court of admiralty. This was 
intended to operate as an indirect bribe by putting Mr. Adams 
into a position in which he could not feel free to oppose the 
policy of the crown ; such insidious methods were systematic- 
ally pursued by Gov. Bernard, and after him by Hutchinson. 
But Mr. Adams was too wary to swallow the bait, and he 
stubbornly refused the pressing offer. 



JOHN ADAMS. 30 

In 1770 came the first in the series of great acts that made 
Mr. Adams's career illustrious. In the midst of the terrible 
excitement aroused by the " Boston Massacre " he served as 
counsel for Capt. Preston and his seven soldiers when they 
were tried for murder. His friend and kinsman, Josiah Quincy, 
assisted him in this invidious task. The trial was judiciously 
postponed for seven months until the popular fury had abated. 
Preston and five soldiers were acquitted ; the other two soldiers 
were found guilty of manslaughter, and were barbarously 
branded on the hand with a hot iron. The verdict seems to 
have been strictly just according to the evidence presented. 
For his services to his eight clients Mr. Adams received a fee 
of nineteen guineas, but never got so much as a word of thanks 
from the churlish Preston. An ordinary American politician 
would have shrunk from the task of defending these men, for 
fear of losing favor with the people. The course pursued by 
Mr. Adams showed great moral courage ; and the people of 
Boston proved themselves able to appreciate true manliness by 
electing him as representative to the legislature. This was in 
June, 1770, after he had undertaken the case of the soldiers, 
but before the trial. Mr. Adams now speedily became the 
principal legal adviser of the patriot party, and among its fore- 
most leaders was only less conspicuous than Samuel Adams, 
Hancock, and Warren. In all matters of legal controversy 
between these leaders and Gov. Hutchinson his advice proved 
invaluable. During the next two years there was something 
of a lull in the political excitement ; Mr. Adams resigned his 
place in the legislature and moved his residence to Braintree, 
still keeping his office in Boston. In the summer of 1772 the 
British government ventured upon an act that went further 
than anything which had yet occurred toward driving the 
colonies into rebellion. It was ordered that all the Massa- 
chusetts judges holding their places during the king's pleasure 
should henceforth have their salaries paid by the crown and 
not by the colony. This act, which aimed directly at the in- 
dependence of the judiciary, aroused intense indignation, not 
only in Massachusetts, but in the other colonies, which felt 
their liberties threatened by such a measure. It called forth 
from Mr. Adams a series of powerful articles, which have been 
republished in the 3d volume of his collected works. About 
this time he was chosen member of the council, but he at 



40 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDEiVTS. 



choice was negatived by Gov. Hutchinson. The five acts of 
parliament in April, 1774, including the regulating act and 
the Boston port bill, led to the calling of the first continental 
congress, to which Mr. Adams was chosen as one of the five 
delegates from Massachusetts. The resolutions passed by this 
congress on the subject of colonial rights were drafted by him, 
and his diary and letters contain a vivid account of some of 
the proceedings. On his return to Braintree he was chosen a 
member of the revolutionary provincial congress of Massachu- 
setts, then assembled at Concord. This revolutionary body 
had already seized the revenues of the colony, appointed a 
committee of safety, and begun to organize an army and col- 
lect arms and ammunition. During the following winter the 
views of the loyalist party were set forth with great ability and 
eloquence in a series of newspaper articles by Daniel Leonard, 
under the signature of " Massachusettensis." He was answered 
most effectively by Mr. Adams, whose articles, signed " No- 
vanglus," appeared weekly in the Boston " Gazette " until the 
battle of Lexington. The last of these articles, which was 
actually in type in that wild week, was not published. The 
series, which has been reprinted in the 4th volume of Mr. 
Adams's works, contains a valuable review of the policy of 
Bernard and Hutchinson, and a powerful statement of the 
rights of the colonies. 

In the second continental congress, which assembled May 
loth, Mr. Adams played a very important part. Of all the 
delegates present he was probably the only one, except his 
cousin, Samuel Adams, who was convinced that matters had 
gone too far for any reconciliation with the mother country, 
and that there was no use in sending any more petitions to the 
king. As there was a strong prejudice against Massachusetts 
on the part of the middle and southern colonies, it was desir- 
able that her delegates should avoid all appearance of undue 
haste in precipitating an armed conflict. Nevertheless, the 
•circumstances under which an army of 16,000 New England 
men had been gathered to besiege the British in Boston were 
such as to make it seem advisable for the congress to adopt it 
as a continental army ; and here John Adams did the second 
notable deed of his career. He proposed Washington for the 
chief command of this army, and thus, by putting Virginia in 
the foreground, succeeded in committing that great colony to 



JOHN ADAMS. 4 1 

a course of action calculated to end in independence. This 
move not only put the army in charge of the only commander 
capable of winning independence for the American people in 
the field, but its political importance was great and obvious. 
Afterward in some dark moments of the revolutionary war, 
Mr. Adams seems almost to have regretted his part in this 
selection of a commander. He understood little or nothing of 
military affairs, and was incapable of appreciating General 
Washington's transcendent ability. The results of the war, 
however, justified in every respect his action in the second ^ 
continental congress. 

During the summer recess taken by congress Mr. Adams 
sat as a member of the Massachusetts council, which declared 
the office of governor vacant and assumed executive authority. 
Under the new provisional government of Massachusetts, Mr. 
Adams was made chief justice, but never took his seat, as 
continental affairs more pressingly demanded his attention. 
He was always loquacious, often too ready to express his 
opinions, whether with tongue or pen, and this trait got him 
more than once into trouble, especially as he was inclined to 
be sharp and censorious. For John Dickinson, the leader of 
the moderate and temporizing party in congress, who had just 
prevailed upon that body to send another petition to the king, 
he seems to have entertained at this time no very high regard, 
and he gave vent to some contemptuous expressions in a 
confidential letter, which was captured by the British and 
published. This led to a quarrel with Dickinson, and made 
Mr. Adams very unpopular in Philadelphia. When congress 
reassembled in the autumn, Mr. Adams, as member of a com- 
mittee for fitting out cruisers, drew up a body of regulations, 
which came to form the basis of the American naval code. 
The royal governor. Sir John Wentworth, fled from New 
Hampshire about this time, and the people sought the advice of 
congress as to the form of government which it should seem 
most advisable to adopt. Similar applications presently came 
from South Carolina and Virginia. Mr. Adams prevailed upon 
congress to recommend to these colonies to form for them- 
selves new governments based entirely upon popular suffrage; 
and about the same time he published a pamphlet entitled 
"Thoughts on Government, Applicable to the Present State of 
the American Colonies." By the spring of 1776 the popular 



42 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



// 



feeling had become so strongly inclined toward independence 
that, on the 15th of May, Mr. Adams was able to carry through 
congress a resolution that all the colonies should be invited 
to form independent governments. In the preamble to this 
resolution it was declared that the American people could no 
longer conscientiously take oath to support any government 
deriving its authority from the crown ; all such governments 
must now be suppressed, since the king had withdrawn 
his protection from the inhabitants of the united colonies. 
Like the famous preamble to Townshend's act of 1767, this 
Adams preamble contained within itself the gist of the whole 
matter. To adopt it was to cross the Rubicon, and it gave 
rise to a hot debate in congress. Against the opposition of 
most of the delegates from the middle states the resolution 
was finally carried; "and now," exclaimed Mr. Adams, "the 
Gordian knot is cut." Events came quickly to maturity. On 
the 7th of June the declaration of independence was moved by 
Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, and seconded by John Adams. 
The motion was allowed to lie on the table for three weeks, 
in order to hear from the colonies of Connecticut, New Hamp- 
shire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and New 
York, which had not yet declared their position with regard to 
independence. Meanwhile three committees were appointed, 
one on a declaration of independence, a second on confedera- 
tion, and a third on foreign relations ; and Mr. Adams was a 
member of the first and third of these committees. On the ist 
of July Mr, Lee's motion was taken up by congress sitting as 
a committee of the whole ; and as Mr. Lee was absent, the 
task of defending it devolved upon Mr. Adams, who, as usual, 
was opposed by Dickinson. Adams's speech on that occasion 
was probably the finest he ever delivered. Jefferson called 
him "the colossus of that debate"; and indeed his labors in 
bringing about the declaration of independence must be con- 
sidered as the third signal event of his career. 

On the i2th of June congress established a board of war 
and ordnance, with Mr. Adams for its chairman, and he dis- 
charged the arduous duties of this office until after the sur- 
render of Burgoyne. After the battle of Long Island, Lord 
Howe sent the captured Gen. Sullivan to Philadelphia, solicit- 
ing a conference with some of the members of the congress. 
Adams opposed the conference, and with characteristic petu- 



JOHN ADAMS. 43 

lance alluded to the unfortunate Sullivan as a decoy duck who 
had much better have been shot in the battle than sent on 
such a business. Congress, however, consented to the confer- 
ence, and Adams was chosen as a commissioner, along with 
Franklin and Rutledge. Toward the end of the year 1777 
Mr. Adams was appointed to supersede Silas Deane as com- 
missioner to France. He sailed 12 Feb., 1778, in the frigate 
"Boston," and after a stormy passage, in which he ran no 
little risk of capture by British cruisers, he landed at Bordeaux, 
and reached Paris on the 8th of April. Long before his arrival 
the alliance with France had been consummated. He found a 
wretched state of things in Paris, our three commissioners 
there at loggerheads, one of them dabbling in the British funds 
and making a fortune by privateering, while the public ac- 
counts were kept in the laxest manner. All sorts of agents 
were drawing bills upon the United States, and commanders of 
war vessels were setting up their claims for expenses and sup- 
plies that had never been ordered. Mr. Adams, whose habits 
of business were extremely strict and methodical, was shocked 
at this confusion, and he took hold of the matter with such 
vigor as to put an end to it. He also recommended that the 
representation of the United States at the French court should 
be intrusted to a single minister instead of three commis- 
sioners. As a result of this advice, Franklin was retained at 
Paris, Arthur Lee was sent to Madrid, and Adams, being left 
without any instructions, returned to America, reaching Boston 
2 Aug., 1779. He came home with a curious theory of the 
decadence of Great Britain, which he had learned in France, 
and which serves well to illustrate the mood in which France 
had undertaken to assist the United States. England, he said, 
"loses every day her consideration, and runs toward her ruin. 
Her riches, in which her power consisted, she has lost with us 
and never can regain. She resembles the melancholy spectacle 
of a great, wide-spreading tree that has been girdled at the 
root." Such absurd notions were quite commonly entertained 
at that time on the continent of Europe, and such calamities 
were seriously dreaded by many Englishmen in the event of 
the success of the Americans. 

Immediately on reaching home Mr. Adams was chosen 
delegate from Braintree to the convention for framing a new 
constitution for Massachusetts; but before the work of the 



44 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



convention was finished he was appointed commissioner to 
treat for peace with Great Britain, and sailed for France in the 
same French frigate in which he had come home. But Lord 
North's government was not ready to make peace, and, more- 
over. Count Vergennes contrived to prevent Adams from mak- 
ing any official communication to Great Britain of the extent 
of his powers. During Adams's stay in Paris a mutual dislike 
and distrust grew up between himself and Vergennes. The 
latter feared that if negotiations were to begin between the 
British government and the United States, they might lead to 
a reconciliation and reunion of the two branches of the English 
race, and thus ward off that decadence of England for which 
France was so eagerly hoping. On the other hand, Adams 
quite correctly believed that it was the intention of Vergennes 
to sacrifice the interests of the Americans, especially as con- 
cerned with the Newfoundland fisheries and the territory be- 
tween the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, in favor of Spain, 
with which country France was then in close alliance. Amer- 
icans must always owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Adams for 
the clear-sightedness with which he thus read the designs of 
Vergennes and estimated at its true value the purely selfish 
intervention of France in behalf of the United States. This 
clearness of insight was soon to bear good fruit in the manage- 
ment of the treaty of 1783. For the present, Adams found 
himself uncomfortable in Paris, as his too ready tongue wrought 
unpleasantness both with Vergennes and with Franklin, who 
was too much under the French minister's influence. On his 
first arrival in Paris, society there had been greatly excited 
about him, as it was supposed that he was " the famous Mr. 
Adams " who had ordered the British troops out of Boston in 
March, 1770, and had thrown down the glove of defiance to 
George III. on the great day of the Boston tea-party. When 
he explained that he was only a cousin of that grand and 
picturesque personage, he found that fashionable society thence- 
forth took less interest in him. 

In the summer of 1780 Mr. Adams was charged by congress 
with the business of negotiating a Dutch loan. In order to 
give the good people of Holland some correct ideas as to 
American affairs, he published a number of articles in the Ley- 
den " Gazette " and in a magazine entitled " La politique 
hollandaise " ; also "Twenty-six Letters upon Interesting Sub- 



JOHN ADAMS. ^c 

jects respecting the Revolution in America," now reprinted in 
the 7th volume of his works. Soon after Adams's arrival in 
Holland, England declared war against the Dutch, ostensibly 
because of a proposed treaty of commerce with the United 
States in which the burgomaster of Amsterdam was implicated 
with Henry Laurens, but really because Holland had joined 
the league headed by the empress Catharine of Russia, de- 
signed to protect the commerce of neutral nations and known 
as the armed neutrality. Laurens had been sent out by con- 
gress as minister to Holland ; but, as he had been captured 
by a British cruiser and taken to the tower of London, Mr. 
Adams was appointed minister in his place. His first duty was 
to sign, as representing the United States, the articles of the 
armed neutrality. Before he had got any further, indeed be- 
fore he had been recognized as minister by the Dutch govern- 
ment, he was called back to Paris, in July, 1781, in order to be 
ready to enter upon negotiations for peace with the British 
government. Russia and Austria had volunteered their serv- 
ices as mediators between George HL and the Americans; 
but Lord North's government rejected the offer, so that Mr. 
Adams had his journey for nothing, and presently went back 
to Holland. His first and most arduous task was to persuade 
the Dutch government to recognize him as minister from the 
independent United States. In this he was covertly opposed 
by Vergennes, who wished the Americans to feel exclusively 
dependent upon France, and to have no other friendships or 
alliances. From first to last the aid extended by France to 
the Americans in the revolutionary war was purely selfish. 
That despotic government wished no good to a people strug- 
gling to preserve the immemorial principles of English liberty, 
and the policy of Vergennes was to extend just enough aid to 
us to enable us to prolong the war, so that colonies and mother 
country might alike be weakened. When he pretended to be 
the disinterested friend of the Americans, he professed to be 
under the influence of sentiments that he did not really feel ; 
and he thus succeeded in winning from congress a confidence 
to which he was in no wise entitled. But he could not hood- 
wink John Adams, who wrote home that the duke de la Vau- 
guyon, the French ambassador at the Hague, was doing every- 
thing in his power to obstruct the progress of the negotiations ; 
and in this, Adams correctly inferred, he was acting under 



46 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

secret instructions from Vergennes. As a diplomatist Adams 
was in a certain sense Napoleonic ; he introduced new and 
strange methods of warfare, which disconcerted the perfidious 
intriguers of the old school, of which Vergennes and Talley- 
rand were typical examples. Instead of beating about the 
bush and seeking to foil trickery by trickery (a business in 
which the wily Frenchman would doubtless have proved more 
than his match), he went straight to the duke de la Vauguyon 
and bluntly told him that he saw plainly what he was up to, 
and that it was of no use, since " no advice of his or of the 
count de Vergennes, nor even a requisition from the king, should 
restrain me." The duke saw that Adams meant exactly what he 
said, and, finding that it was useless to oppose the negotiations, 
" fell in with me, in order to give the air of French influence " 
to them. Events worked steadily and rapidly in Adams's favor. 
The plunder of St. Eustatius early in 1781 had raised the 
wrath of the Dutch against Great Britain to fever heat. 

In November came tidings of the surrender of Lord Corn- 
wallis. By this time Adams had published so many articles as 
to have given the Dutch some idea as to what sort of people 
the Americans were. He had some months before presented a 
petition to the states general, asking them to recognize him as 
minister from an independent nation. With his wonted bold- 
ness he now demanded a plain and unambiguous answer to this 
petition, and followed up the demand by visiting the represent- 
atives of the several cities in person and arguing his case. As 
the reward of this persistent energy, Mr. Adams had the pleas- 
ure of seeing the independence of the United States formally 
recognized by Holland on the 19th of April, 1782. This suc- 
cess was vigorously followed up. A Dutch loan of $2,000,000 
was soon negotiated, and on the 7th of October a treaty of 
amity and commerce, the second which was ratified with the 
United States as an independent nation, was signed at the 
Hague This work in Holland was the fourth signal event in 
John Adams's career, and, in view of the many obstacles over- 
come, he was himself in the habit of referring to it as the great- 
est triumph of his life. " One thing, thank God ! is certain," he 
wrote; "I have planted the American standard at the Hague. 
There let it wave and fly in trumph over Sir Joseph Yorke and 
British pride. I shall look down upon the flag-staff with pleas- 
ure from the other world." 



JOHN ADAMS. ^y 

Mr. Adams had hardly time to finish this work when his 
presence was required m Paris. Negotiations for peace with 
Great Britain had begun some time before in conversations be- 
tween Franklin and Richard Oswald, a gentleman whom Lord 
Shelburne had sent to Paris for the purpose. One British min- 
istry had already been wrecked through these negotiations, 
and affairs had dragged along slowly amid endless difficulties. 
The situation was one of the most complicated in the history of 
diplomacy. France was in alliance at once with Spain and 
with the United States, and her treaty obligations to the one 
were in some respects inconsistent with her treaty obligations 
to the other. The feeling of Spain toward the United States 
was intensely hostile, and the French government was much 
more in sympathy with the former than with the latter. On 
the other hand, the new British government was not ill-dis- 
posed toward the Americans, and was extremely ready to make 
liberal concessions to them for the sake of thwarting the 
schemes of France. In the background stood George III., 
surly and irreconcilable, hoping that the negotiations would 
fail ; and amid these difficulties they doubtless would have 
failed had not all the parties by this time had a surfeit of 
bloodshed. The designs of the French government were first 
suspected by John Jay, soon after his arrival in Paris. He 
found that Vergennes was sending a secret emissary to Lord 
Shelburne under an assumed name; he ascertained that the 
right of the United States to the Mississippi valley was to be 
denied ; and he got hold of a despatch from Marbois, the 
French secretary of legation at Philadelphia, to Vergennes^ 
opposing the American claim to the Newfoundland fisheries. 
As soon as Jay learned these facts he proceeded, without the 
knowledge of Franklin, to take steps toward a separate nego- 
tiation between Great Britain and the United States. When 
Adams arrived in Paris, Oct. 26th, he coincided with Jay's 
views, and the two together overruled Franklin. Mr. Adams's 
behavior at this time was quite characteristic. It is said that 
he left Vergennes to learn of his arrival through the newspa- 
pers. It was certainly some time before he called upon him, 
and he took occasion, besides, to express his opinions about 
republics and monarchies in terms that courtly Frenchman 
thought very rude. Adams agreed with Jay that Vergennes 
should be kept as far as possible in the dark until everything 



48 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



was completed, and so the negotiation with Great Britain went 
on separately. The annals of modern diplomacy have afforded 
few stranger spectacles. With the indispensable aid of France 
we had just got the better of England in fight, and now we 
proceeded amicably to divide territory and commercial privi- 
leges with the enemy, and to make arrangements in which our 
not too friendly ally was virtually ignored. In this way the 
United States secured the Mississippi valley, and a share in the 
Newfoundland fisheries, not as a privilege but as a right, the 
latter result being mainly due to the persistence of Mr. Adams. 
The point upon which the British Commissioners most strongly 
insisted was the compensation of the American loyalists for 
the hardships they had suffered during the war; but this the 
American commissioners resolutely refused. The most they 
could be prevailed upon to allow was the insertion in the 
treaty of a clause to the effect that congress should recommend 
to the several state governments to reconsider their laws 
against the tories and to give these unfortunate persons a 
chance to recover their property. In the treaty, as finally 
arranged, all the disputed points were settled in favor of the 
Americans; and, the United States being thus virtually de- 
tached from the alliance, the British government was enabled 
to turn a deaf ear to the demands of France and Spain for the 
surrender of Gibraltar. Vergennes was outgeneralled at every 
turn. On the part of the Americans the treaty of 1783 de- 
serves to be ranked as one of the most brilliant triumphs of mod- 
ern diplomacy. Its success was about equally due to Adams 
and to Jay, whose courage in the affair was equal to their 
skill, for they took it upon themselves to disregard the explicit 
instructions of congress. Ever since March, 1781, Vergennes 
had been intriguing with congress through his minister at 
Philadelphia, the chevalier de la Euzerne. First he had tried 
to get Mr. Adams recalled to America. Failing in this, he had 
played his part with such dexterous persistence as to prevail 
upon congress to send most pusillanimous instructions to its 
peace commissioners. They were instructed to undertake 
nothing whatever in the negotiations without the knowledge 
and concurrence of " the ministers of our generous ally, the 
king of France," that is to say, of the count de Vergennes ; and 
they were to govern themselves entirely by his advice and 
opinion. Franklin would have followed these instructions; 



JOHX ADAMS. 4Q 

Adams and Jay deliberately disobeyed them, and earned the 
gratitude of their countrymen for all coming time. For Ad- 
ams's share in this grand achievement it must certainly be cited 
as the fifth signal event in his career. 

By this time he had become excessively home-sick, and as 
soon as the treaty was arranged he asked leave to resign his 
commissions and return to America. He declared he would 
rather be " carting street-dust and marsh-mud " than waiting 
where he was. But business would not let him go. In Sep- 
tember, 1783, he was commissioned, along with Franklin and 
Jay, to negotiate a commercial treaty with Great Britain. A 
sudden and violent fever prostrated him for several weeks, 
after which he visited London and Bath. Before he had fully 
recovered his health he learned that his presence was required 
in Holland. In those days, when we lived under the articles 
of confederation, and congress found it impossible to raise 
money enough to meet its current expenses, it was by no 
means unusual for the superintendent of finance to draw upon 
our foreign ministers and then sell the drafts for cash. This 
was done again and again, when there was not the smallest 
ground for supposing that the minister upon whom the draft 
was made would have any funds wherewith to meet it. It was 
part of his duty as envoy to go and beg the money. Early in 
the winter Mr. Adams learned that drafts upon him had been 
presented to his bankers in Amsterdam to the amount of more 
than a million florins. Less than half a million florins were on 
hand to meet these demands, and, unless something were done 
at once, the greater part of this paper would go back to Amer- 
ica protested. Mr. Adams lost not a moment in starting for 
Holland, but he was delayed by a succession of terrible storms 
on the German ocean, and it was only after fifty-four days of 
difficulty and danger that he reached Amsterdam. The bank- 
ers had contrived ta keep the drafts from going to protest, but 
news of the bickerings between the thirteen states had reached 
Holland. It was believed that the new nation was going to 
pieces, and the regency of Amsterdam had no money to lend 
it. The promise of the American government was not regarded 
as valid security for a sum equivalent to about $300,000. 
Adams was obliged to apply to professional usurers, from 
whom, after more humiliating perplexity, he succeeded in ob- 
taining a loan at exorbitant interest. In the meantime he had 



50 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



been appointed commissioner, along with Franklin and Jeffer- 
son, for the general purpose of negotiating commercial treaties 
with foreign powers. As his return to America was thus in- 
definitely postponed, he sent for his wife, with their only 
daughter and youngest son, to come and join him in France, 
where the two elder sons were already with him. In the sum 
mer of 1784 the family was thus re-united, and began house- 
keeping at Auteuil, near Paris. A treaty was successfully 
negotiated with Prussia, but, before it was ready to be signed, 
Mr. Adams was appointed minister to the court of St. James, 
1/ and arrived in London in May, 1785. He was at first politely 
received by George III., upon whom his bluff and fearless dig- 
nity of manner made a considerable impression. His stay in 
England was, however, far from pleasant. The king came to 
treat him with coldness, sometimes with rudeness, and the royal 
example was followed by fashionable society. The American 
government was losing credit at home and abroad. It was 
unable to fulfill its treaty engagements as to the payment of 
private debts due to British creditors, and as to the protection 
of the loyalists. The British Government, in retaliation, re- 
fused to surrender the western posts of Ogdensburg, Oswego, 
Niagara, Erie, Sandusky, Detroit, and Mackinaw, which by the 
treaty were to be promptly given up to the United States. 
Still more, it refused to make any treaty of commerce with the 
United States, and neglected to send any minister to represent 
Great Britain in this country. It was generally supposed in 
Europe that the American government would presently come 
to an end in general anarchy and bloodshed; and it was be- 
lieved by George III. and the narrow-minded politicians, such 
as Lord Sheffield, upon whose cooperation he relied, that, if 
sufficient obstacles could be thrown in the way of American 
commerce to cause serious distress in this country, the United 
States would repent of their independence and come straggling 
back, one after another, to their old allegiance. Under such 
circumstances it was impossible for Mr. Adams to accomplish 
much as minister in England. During his stay there he wrote 
his " Defence of the American Constitutions," a work which aft- 
erward subjected him at home to ridiculous charges of monarch- 
ical and anti-republican sympathies. The object of the book 
was to set forth the advantages of a division of the powers of 
government, and especially of the legislative body, as opposed 



JOHN ADAMS. ci 

to the scheme of a single legislative chamber, which was advo- 
cated by many writers on the continent of Europe. The argu- 
ment is encumbered by needlessly long and sometimes hardly 
relevant discussions on the history of the Italian republics. 

Finding the British government utterly stubborn and im- 
practicable, Mr. Adams asked to be recalled, and his request 
was granted in February, 1788. For the "patriotism, persever- 
ance, integrity, and diligence " displayed in his ten years of serv- 
ice abroad he received the public thanks of congress. He had 
no sooner reached home than he was elected a delegate from 
Massachusetts to the moribund continental congress, but that 
body expired before he had taken his seat in it. During the 
summer the ratification of the new constitution was so far com- 
pleted that it could be put into operation, and public attention 
was absorbed in the work of organizing the new government. 
As Washington was unanimously selected for the office of 
president, it was natural that the vice-president should be 
taken from Massachusetts. The candidates for the presidency 
and vice-presidency were voted for without any separate speci- 
fication, the second office falling to the candidate who obtained 
the second highest number of votes in the electoral college. 
Of the 69 electoral votes, all were registered for Washington, 
34 for John Adams, who stood second on the list; the other 35 
votes were scattered among a number of candidates. Adams 
was somewhat chagrined at this marked preference shown for 
Washington. His chief foible was enormous personal vanity, 
besides which he was much better fitted by temperament and 
training to appreciate the kind of work that he had himself 
done than the military work by which Washington had won in- 
dependence for the United States. He never could quite under- 
stand how or why the services rendered by Washington were so 
much more important than his own. The office of vice-president 
was then more highly esteemed than it afterward came to be, 
but it was hardly suited to a man of Mr. Adams's vigorous and 
aggressive temper. In one respect, however, he performed a 
more important part while holding that office than any of his 
successors. In the earlier sessions of the senate there was hot 
debate over the vigorous measures by which Washington's 
administration was seeking to reestablish American credit and 
enlist the conservative interests of the wealthier citizens in be- 
half of the stability of the government. These measures were 
5 



52 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



for the most part opposed by the persons who were rapidly be- 
coming organized under Jefferson's leadership into the repub- 
lican party, the opposition being mainly due to dread of the 
possible evil consequences that might flow from too great an 
increase of power in the federal government. In these debates 
the senate was very evenly divided, and Mr. Adams, as presid- 
ing officer of that body, was often enabled to decide the ques- 
tion by his casting vote. In the first congress he gave as 
many as twenty casting votes upon questions of most vital 
importance to the whole subsequent history of the American 
people, and on all these occasions he supported President 
Washington's policy. 

During Washington's administration grew up the division 
into the two great parties which have remained to this day in 
American politics — the one known as federalist, afterward as 
whig, then as republican ; the other known at first as repub- 
lican and afterward as democratic. John Adams was by his 
mental and moral constitution a federalist. He believed in 
strong government. To the opposite party he seemed much 
less a democrat than an aristocrat. In one of his essays he 
provoked great popular wrath by using the phrase "the well- 
born." He knew very well that in point of hereditary capacity 
and advantages men are not equal and never will be. His 
notion of democratic equality meant that all men should have 
equal rights in the eye of the law. There was nothing of the 
communist or leveller about him. He believed in the rightful 
existence of a governing class, which ought to be kept at the 
head of affairs ; and he was supposed, probably with some truth, 
to have a predilection for etiquette, titles, gentlemen-in-waiting, 
and such things. Such views did not make him an aristocrat 
in the true sense of the word, for in nowise did he believe that 
the right to a place in the governing class should be heritable; 
it was something to be won by personal merit, and should not 
be withheld by any artificial enactments from the lowliest of 
men, to whom the chance of an illustrious career ought to be 
just as much open as to "the well-born." At the same time 
John Adams differed from Jefferson and from his cousin, 
Samuel Adams, in distrusting the masses. All the federalist 
leaders shared this feeling more or less, and it presently be- 
came the chief source of weakness to the party. The disagree- 
ment between John Adams and Jefferson was first brought 



JOHN ADAMS. 5^ 

into prominence by the breaking out of the French revolution. 
Mr. Adams expected little or no good from this movement, 
which was like the American movement in no respect whatever 
except in being called a revolution. He set forth his views- on 
this subject in his " Discourses on Davila," which were pub- 
lished in a Philadelphia newspaper. Taking as his text Davila's 
history of the civil wars in France in the i6th century, he 
argued powerfully that a pure democracy was not the best 
form of government, but that a certain mixture of the aristo- 
cratic and monarchical elements was necessary to the perma- 
nent maintenance of free government. Such a mixture really 
exists in the constitution of the United States, and, in the 
opinion of many able thinkers, constitutes its peculiar excel- 
lence and the best guarantee of its stability. These views 
gave great umbrage to the extreme democrats, and in the elec- 
tion of 1792 they set up George Clinton, of New York, as a 
rival candidate for the vice-presidency ; but when the votes 
were counted Adams had 77, Clinton 50, Jefferson 4, and Aaron 
Burr I. During this administration Adams, by his casting 
vote, defeated the attempt of the republicans to balk Jay's 
mission to England in advance by a resolution entirely pro- 
hibiting trade with that country. For a time Adams quite for- 
got his jealousy of Washington in admiration for the heroic 
strength of purpose with which he pursued his policy of neu- 
trality amid the furious efforts of political partisans to drag the 
United States into a rash and desperate armed struggle in sup- 
port either of France or of England. 

In 1796, as Washington refused to serve for a third term 
John Adams seemed clearly marked out as federalist candidate 
for the succession. Hamilton and Jay were in a certain sense 
his rivals; but Jay was for the moment unpopular because of 
the famous treaty that he had lately negotiated with England, 
and Hamilton, although the ablest man in the federalist party, 
was still not so conspicuous in the eyes of the masses of voters 
as Adams, who besides was surer than any one else of the in- 
dispensable New England vote. Having decided upon Adams 
as first candidate, it seemed desirable to take the other from a 
southern state, and the choice fell upon Thomas Pinckney, 
of South Carolina, a younger brother of Charles Cotesworth 
Pinckney. Hamilton now began to scheme against Mr. Adams in 
a manner not at all to his credit. He had always been jealous 



54 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



of Adams because of his stubborn and independent character, 
which made it impossible for him to be subservient to a leader. 
There was not room enough in one political party for two 
such positive and aggressive characters. Already in the elec- 
tion of 1788 Hamilton had contrived to diminish Adams's vote 
by persuading some electors of the possible danger of a unani- 
mous and therefore equal vote for him and Washington. Such 
advice could not have been candid, for there was never the 
smallest possibility of a unanimous vote for Mr. Adams. Now 
in 1796 he resorted to a similar stratagem. The federalists 
were likely to win the election, but had not many votes to 
spare ; the contest was evidently going to be close. Hamilton 
accordingly urged the federalist electors, especially in New 
England, to cast all their votes alike for Adams and Pinckney, 
lest the loss of a single vote by either one should give the 
victory to Jefferson, upon whom the opposite party was clearly 
united. Should Adams and Pinckney receive an exactly equal 
number of votes, it would remain for a federalist congress to 
decide which should be president. The result of the election 
showed 71 votes for John Adams, 68 for Jefferson, 59 for 
Pinckney, 30 for Burr, 15 for Samuel Adams, and the rest scat- 
tering. Two electors obstinately persisted in voting for Wash- 
ington. When it appeared that Adams had only three more 
votes than Jefferson, who secured the second place instead of 
Pinckney, it seemed on the surface as if Hamilton's advice had 
been sound. But from the outset it had been clear (and no 
one knew it better than Hamilton) that several southern feder- 
alists would withhold their votes from Adams in order to give 
the presidency to Pinckney, always supposing that the New 
England electors could be depended upon to vote equally for 
both. The purpose of Hamilton's advice was to make Pinck- 
ney president and Adams vice-president, in opposition to the 
wishes of their party. This purpose was suspected in New 
England, and while some of the southern federalists voted for 
Pinckney and Jefferson, eighteen New Englanders, in voting 
for Adams, withheld their votes from Pinckney. The result 
was the election of a federalist president with a republican 
vice-president. In case of the death, disability, or removal of 
the president, the administration would fall into the hands of 
the opposite party. Clearly a mode of election that presented 
such temptations to intrigue, and left so much to accident, was 






''tJUy^i^ 



% l?^44/^ ^^ X*^ ^' ^/^>^^^ 7^ ^^ ^2^^ 



JOHN ADAMS. 55 

vicious and could not last long. These proceedings gave rise 
to a violent feud between John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, 
which ended in breaking up the federalist party, and has left a 
legacy of bitter feelings to the many descendants of those two 
illustrious men. 

The presidency of John Adams was stormy. We were en- 
tering upon that period when our party strife was determined 
rather by foreign than by American political issues, when Eng- 
land and France, engaged in a warfare of Titans, took every 
occasion to browbeat and insult us because we were supposed 
to be too feeble to resent such treatment. The revolutionary 
government of France had claimed that, in accordance with 
our treaty with that country, we were bound to support her 
against Great Britain, at least so far as concerned the defence 
of the French West Indies. The republican party went almost 
far enough in their sympathy with the French to concede these 
claims, which, if admitted by our government, would imme- 
diately have got us into war with England. On the other 
hand, the hatred felt toward France by the extreme federalists 
was so bitter that any insult from that power was enough to 
incline them to advocate war against her and in behalf of Eng- 
land. Washington, in defiance of all popular clamor, adhered 
to a policy of strict neutrality, and in this he was resolutely 
followed by Adams. The American government was thus 
obliged carefully and with infinite difficulty to steer between 
Scylla and Charybdis until the overthrow of Napoleon and our 
naval victories over England in i8i2-'i4 put an end to this 
humiliating state of things. Under Washington's administra- 
tion Gouverneur Morris had been for some time minister to 
France, but he was greatly disliked by the anarchical group 
that then misruled that country. To avoid giving offence to 
the French republic, Washington had recalled Morris and sent 
James Monroe m his place, with instructions to try to reconcile 
the French to Jay's mission to England. Instead of doing this, 
Monroe encouraged the French to hope that Jay's treaty would 
not be ratified, and Washington accordingly recalled him and 
sent Cotesworth Pinckney in his place. Enraged at the ratifi- 
cation of Jay's treaty, the French government not only gave a 
brilliant ovation to Monroe, but refused to receive Pinckney, 
and would not even allow him to stay in Paris. At the same 
time, decrees were passed discriminating against American 



56 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



commerce. Mr. Adams was no sooner inaugurated as presi- 
dent than he called an extra session of congress, to consider 
how war with France should be avoided. It was decided to 
send a special commission to France, consisting of Cotesworth 
Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry. The directory 
would not acknowledge these commissioners and treat with 
them openly ; but Talleyrand, who was then secretary for for- 
eign affairs, sent some of his creatures to intrigue with them 
behind the scenes. It was proposed that the envoys should 
pay large sums of money to Talleyrand and two or three of 
the directors, as bribes, for dealing politely with the United 
States and refraining from locking up American ships and 
stealing American goods. When the envoys scornfully re- 
jected this proposal, a new decree was forthwith issued against 
American commerce. The envoys drew up an indignant re- 
monstrance, which Gerry hesitated to sign. Wearied with their 
fruitless efforts, Marshall and Pinckney left Paris. But, as 
Gerry was a republican, Talleyrand thought it worth while to 
persuade him to stay, hoping that he might prove more com- 
pliant than his colleagues. In March, 1798, Mr. Adams an- 
nounced to congress the failure of the mission, and advised 
that the preparations already begun should be kept up in view 
of the war that now seemed almost inevitable. A furious de- 
bate ensued, which was interrupted by a motion from the fed- 
eralist side, calling on the president for full copies of the de- 
spatches. Nothing could have suited Mr. Adams better. He 
immediately sent in copies complete in everything except that 
the letters X., Y., and Z. were substituted for the names of 
Talleyrand's emissaries. Hence these papers have ever since 
been known as the " X. Y. Z. despatches." On the 8th of April 
the senate voted to publish these despatches, and they aroused 
great excitement both in Europe and in America. The British 
government scattered them broadcast over Europe, to stir up 
indignation against France. In America a great storm of 
wrath seemed for the moment to have wrecked the repupican 
party. Those who were not converted to federalism were for 
the moment silenced. From all quarters came up the war-cry, 
''Millions for defence; not one cent for tribute." A few ex- 
cellent frigates were built, the nucleus of the gallant little navy 
that was by and by to win such triumphs over England. An 
army was raised, and Washington was placed in command, 



JOHN ADAMS. 57 

with the rank of lieutenant-general. Gerry was recalled from 
France, and the press roundly berated him for showing less 
firmness than his colleagues, though indeed he had not done 
anything dishonorable. During this excitement the song of 
" Hail Columbia " was published and became popular. On the 
4th of July the efifigy of Talleyrand, who had once been bishop 
of Autun, was arrayed in a surplice and burned at the stake. 
The president was authorized to issue letters of marque and 
reprisal, and for a time war with France actually existed, 
though it was never declared. In February, 1799, Capt. Trux- 
tun, in the frigate " Constellation," defeated and captured the 
French frigate " LTnsurgente " near the island of St. Christo- 
pher. In February, 1800, the same gallant officer in a desper- 
ate battle destroyed the frigate " La Vengeance," which was 
much his superior in strength of armament. When the direct- 
ory found that their silly and infamous policy was likely to 
drive the United States into alliance with Great Britain, they 
began to change their tactics. Talleyrand tried to crawl out 
by disavowing his emissaries X. Y. Z., and pretending that the 
American envoys had been imposed upon by irresponsible ad- 
venturers. He made overtures to Vans Murray, the American 
minister at the Hague, tending toward reconciliation. Mr. 
Adams, while sharing the federalist indignation at the behavior 
of France, was too clear-headed not to see that the only safe 
policy for the United States was one of strict neutrality. He 
was resolutely determined to avoid war if possible, and to meet 
France half-way the moment she should show symptoms of a 
return to reason. His cabinet were so far under Hamilton's 
influence that he could not rely upon them; indeed, he had 
good reason to suspect them of working against him. Accord- 
ingly, without consulting his cabinet, on 18 Feb., 1799, he sent 
to the senate the nomination of Vans Murray as minister to 
France. This bold step precipitated the quarrel between Mr. 
Adams and his party, and during the year it grew fiercer and 
fiercer. He joined Ellsworth, of Connecticut, and Davie, of 
North Carolina, to Vans Murray as commissioners, and awaited 
the assurance of Talleyrand that they would be properly re- 
ceived at Paris. On receiving this assurance, though it was 
couched in rather insolent language by the baffled Frenchman, 
the commissioners sailed Nov. 5. On reaching Paris, they 
found the directory overturned by Napoleon, with whom as 



58 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

first consul they succeeded in adjusting the difficulties. This 
French mission completed the split in the federalist party, and 
made Mr. Adams's re-election impossible. The quarrel with the 
Hamiltonians had been further embittered by Adams's foolish 
attempt to prevent Hamilton's obtaining the rank of senior 
major-general, for which Washington had designated him, and 
it rose to fever-heat in the spring of 1800, when Mr. Adams 
dismissed his cabinet and selected a new one. 

Another affair contributed largely to the downfall of the 
federalist party. In 1798, during the height of the popular 
ifury against France, the federalists in congress presumed too 
much upon their strength, and passed the famous alien and 
sedition acts. By the first of these acts, aliens were rendered 
liable to summary banishment from the United States at the 
sole discretion of the president; and any alien who should 
venture to return from such banishment was liable to im- 
prisonment at hard labor for life. By the sedition act, any 
scandalous or malicious writing against the president or either 
house of congress was liable to be dealt with in the United 
States courts and punished by fine and imprisonment. This 
act contravened the constitutional amendment that forbids all 
infringement of freedom of speech and of the press, and both 
acts aroused more widespread indignation than any others 
that have ever passed m congress. They called forth from the 
southern republicans the famous Kentucky and Virginia reso- 
lutions of i798-'99, which assert, though in language open to 
some latitude of interpretation, the right of a state to " nullify " 
or impede the execution of a law deemed unconstitutional. 

In the election of 1800 the federalist votes were given to 
John Adams and Cotesworth Pinckney, and the republican 
votes to Jefferson and Burr. The count showed 65 votes for 
Adams, 64 for Pinckney, and i for Jay, while Jefferson and 
Burr had each 73, and the election was thus thrown into the 
house of representatives. Mr. Adams took no part in the 
intrigues that followed. His last considerable public act, in 
appointing John Marshall to the chief justiceship of the United 
States, turned out to be of inestimable value to the country, 
and was a worthy end to a great public career. Very different, 
and quite unworthy of such a man as John Adams, was the 
silly and puerile fit of rage in which he got up before daybreak 
of the 4th of March and started in his coach for Massachusetts, 



JOHN ADAMS. jg 

instead of waiting to see the inauguration of his successful 
rival. On several occasions John Adams's career shows us 
striking examples of the demoralizing effects of stupendous 
personal vanity, but on no occasion more strikingly than this. 
He went home with a feeling that he had been disgraced by/ 
his failure to secure a re-election. Yet m estimating his char- 
acter we must not forget that in his resolute insistence upon 
the French mission of 1799 he did not stop for a moment to 
weigh the probable effect of his action upon his chances for 
reelection. He acted as a true patriot, ready to sacrifice him- I 
self for the welfare of his country, never regretted the act, and 1 
always maintained that it was the most meritorious of his life. ' 
" I desire," he said, "no other inscription over my grave-stone 
than this : Here lies John Adams, who took upon himself the 
responsibility of the peace with France in the year 1800." He 
was entirely right, as all disinterested writers now agree. 

After so long and brilliant a career, he now passed a quarter 
of a century in his home at Quincy (as that part of Braintree 
was now called) in peaceful and happy seclusion, devoting 
himself to literary work relating to the history of his times. 
In 1820 the aged statesman was chosen delegate to the con- 
vention for revising the constitution of Massachusetts, and 
labored unsuccessfully to obtain an acknowledgment of the 
equal rights, political and religious, of others than so-called 
Christians. His friendship with Jefferson, which had been 
broken off by their political differences, was resumed in 
his old age, and an interesting correspondence was kept up 
between the two. As a writer of English, John Adams in 
many respects surpassed all his American contemporaries ; his 
style was crisp, pungent, and vivacious. In person he was of 
middle height, vigorous, florid, and somewhat corpulent, quite 
like the typical John Bull. He was always truthful and out- 
spoken, often vehement and brusque. Vanity and loquacity, 
as he freely admitted, were his chief foibles. Without being 
quarrelsome, he had little or none of the tact that avoids 
quarrels ; but he harbored no malice, and his anger, though 
violent, was short-lived. Among American public men there 
has been none more upright and honorable. He lived to see 
his son president of the United States, and died on the fiftieth 
anniversary of the declaration of independence and in the 
ninety-first year of his age. His last words were, " Thomas 



6o 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Jefferson still survives." But by a remarkable coincidence, 
Jefferson had died a few hours earlier the same day. See 
" Life and Works of John Adams," by Charles Francis Adams 
(lo vols., Boston, i85o-'56); "Life of John Adams," by J. 
Q. and C. F. Adams (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1871); and "John 
Adams," by J. T. Morse, Jr. (Boston, 1885). 

The portrait that accompanies this article is copied from a 
paintmg by Gilbert Stuart, which was executed while Mr. 
Adams was president, and is now in the possession of a great- 
grandson. The one on page 38 was taken when he was a 
youth. The houses represented on page 36 are those in which 
John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams were born. 



Abigail Adams (Smith), wife of John Adams, born in 
Weymouth, Mass., 23 Nov., 1744; died in Quincy, Mass., 28 
Oct., 1818. Her father, the Rev. William Smith, was for more 
than forty years minister of the Con- 
gregational church in Weymouth. Her 
mother, Elizabeth Quincy, was a great- 
great - granddaughter of the eminent 
Puritan divine, Thomas Shepard, of 
Cambridge, and great-grandniece of the 
Rev. John Norton, of Boston. She was 
among the most remarkable women of 
the revolutionary period. Her educa- 
tion, so far as books were concerned, 
was but scanty. Of delicate and nerv- 
ous organization, she was so frequently 
ill during childhood and youth that she 
was never sent to any school ; but her 
loss in this respect was not so great as 
might appear; for, while the New England clergymen at that 
time were usually men of great learning, the education of their 
daughters seldom went further than writing or arithmetic, 
with now and then a smattering of what passed current as 
music. In the course of her long life she became exten- 
sively acquainted with the best English literature, and she 
wrote in a terse, vigorous, and often elegant style. Her case 
may well be cited by those who protest against the exagger- 
ated value commonly ascribed to the routine of a school edu- 
cation. Her early years were spent in seclusion, but among 




J M> 



ao^\j 



JOHN ADAMS. 6 1 

people of learning and political sagacity. On 25 Oct., 1764, 
she was married to John Adams, then a young lawyer practis- 
ing in Boston, and for the next ten years her life was quiet and 
happy, though she shared the intense interest of her husband 
in the fierce disputes that were so soon to culminate in war. 
During this period she became the mother of a daughter and 
three sons. Ten years of doubt and anxiety followed during 
which Mrs. Adams was left at home in Braintree, while her 
husband was absent, first as a delegate to the continental con- 
gress, afterward on diplomatic business in Europe. In the 
zeal and determination with which John Adams urged on the 
declaration of independence he was staunchly supported by 
his brave wife, a circumstance that used sometimes to be 
jocosely alleged in explanation of his superiority in boldness 
to John Dickinson, the women of whose household were per- 
petually conjuring up visions of the headsman's block. In 
1784 Mrs. Adams joined her husband in France, and early in 
the following year she accompanied him to London. With the 
recent loss of the American colonies rankling in the minds of 
George III. and his queen, it was hardly to be expected that 
much courtesy would be shown to the first minister from the 
United States or to his wife. Mrs. Adams was treated with 
rudeness, which she seems to have remembered vindictively. 
" Humiliation for Charlotte," she wrote some years later, " is 
no sorrow for me." From 1789 to 1801 her residence was at 
the seat of our federal government. The remainder of her life 
was passed in Braintree (in the part called Quincy), and her 
lively interest in public affairs was kept up till the day of her 
death. Mrs. Adams was a woman of sunny disposition, and 
great keenness and sagacity. Her letters are extremely valu- 
able for the light they throw upon the life of the times. See 
" Familiar Letters of John Adams and his Wife, Abigail Adams, 
during the Revolution," with a memoir by Charles Francis 
Adams (New York, 1876). 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, 
born in Shadwell, Albemarle co., Va., 2 April, 1743; died at 
Monticello, in the same county, 4 July, 1826. His father was 
Peter Jefferson, who, with the aid of thirty slaves, tilled a 
tobacco and wheat farm of 1,900 acres; a man physically 
strong, a good mathematician, skilled in surveying, fond of 
standard literature, and in politics a British Whig. Like his 
fathers before him, Peter Jefferson was a justice of the peace, 
a vestryman of his parish, and a member of the colonial legis- 
lature. The first of the Virginia Jeffersons, who were of 
Welsh extraction, was a member of the Virginia legislature of 
1619, noted as the first legislative body ever convened on the 
western continent. Peter married in 1738 Jane, daughter of 
Isham Randolph, a wealthy and conspicuous member of the 
family of that name. Of their ten children, Thomas was the 
third, born in a plain, spacious farm-house, traces of which still 
exist. He inherited a full measure of his father's bodily 
strength and stature, both having been esteemed in their prime 
the strongest men of their county. He inherited also his 
father's inclination to liberal politics, his taste for literature, 
and his aptitude for mathematics. Peter Jefferson died in 
1757, when his son Thomas was fourteen years of age. On his 
death-bed he left an injunction that the education of his son, 
already well advanced in a preparatory school, should be com- 
pleted at the College of William and Mary, a circumstance 
which his son always remembered with gratitude, saying that 
if he had to choose between the education and the estate his 
father left him, he would choose the education. His school- 
mates reported that at school he was noted for good scholar- 
ship, industry, and shyness. Without leaving his father's land 
he could shoot turkeys, deer, foxes, and other game. His 
father in his last hours had specially charged his mother not to 





D Ap-plefon &Co. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 63 

permit him to neglect the exercise requisite for health and 
strength ; but the admonition was scarcely necessary, for the 
youth was a keen hunter and had been taught by his father to 
swim his horse over the Rivanna, a tributary of the James, 
which flowed by the estate. The Jeffersons were a musical 
family ; the girls sang the songs of the time, and Thomas, prac- 
tising the violin assiduously from boyhood, became an excellent 
performer. At seventeen, when he entered the College of 
William and Mary, he was tall, raw-boned, freckled, and sandy- 
haired, with large feet and hands, thick wrists, and prominent 
cheek-bones and chin. His comrades described him as far 
from handsome, a fresh, healthy-looking youth, very erect, 
agile, and strong, with something of rusticity in his air and de- 
meanor. The college was not then efficient nor well equipped, 
but there was one true educator connected with it. Dr. William 
Small, of Scotland, professor of mathematics. Jefferson grate- 
fully remembered him as an ardent student of science, who 
possessed a happy talent for communicating knowledge, a man 
of agreeable manners and enlightened mind. He goes so far 
as to say in his autobiography that his coming under the in- 
fluence of Dr. Small "probably fixed the destinies of my life." 
The learned and genial professor became attached to his re- 
ceptive pupil, made him the daily companion of his walks, and 
gave him those views of the connection of the sciences and of 
the system of things of which man is a part which then pre- 
vailed in the advanced scientific circles of Europe. Prof. 
Small was a friend of the poet Erasmus Darwin, progenitor of 
an illustrious line of learned men. Jefferson was a hard stu- 
dent in college, and at times forgot his father's dying injunc- 
tion as to exercise. He kept horses at Williamsburg, but as 
his love of knowledge increased his rides became shorter and 
less frequent, and even his beloved violin was neglected. 
There was a time, as he remembered, when he studied fifteen 
hours a day. Once a week the lieutenant-governor, Francis 
Fauquier, had a musical party at the "palace," to which the 
guests, in the good old style of that century, brought their in- 
struments. Jefferson was always present at these parties with 
his violin, and participated in the concert, the governor him- 
self being also a performer. From Fauquier, a man of the 
world of the period, he learned much of the social, political, 
and parliamentary life of the Old World. George Wythe, 



64 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



afterward chancellor, was then a young lawyer of Williams- 
burg. He was one of the highly gifted men that frequented 
the governor's table, and contributed essentially to the form- 
ing of Jefferson's mind. 

On his graduation, Jefferson entered upon the study of 
law, under the guidance of George Wythe. As his father's 
estate was charged with the maintenance of a large family, a 
profession was necessary to the student, and he entered upon 
his preparation for the bar with all his energy and resolution. 
On coming of age, in April, 1764, he assumed the management 
of the estate, and was appointed to two of his father's offices — 
justice of the peace and vestryman. He gave much attention 
to the cultivation of his lands, and remained always an atten- 
tive, zealous, and improving farmer. He attached importance 
all his life to the fact that his legal training was based upon 
the works of Lord Coke, of whom he said that "a sounder 
Whig never wrote, nor one of profounder learning in the or- 
thodox doctrines of the British constitution, or in what were 
called British liberties." It was his settled conviction that the 
early drill of the colonial lawyers in " Coke upon Lyttleton " 
prepared them for the part they took in resisting the uncon- 
stitutional acts of the British government. Lawyers formed 
by Coke, he would say, were all good Whigs; but from the 
time that Blackstone became the leading text-book "the pro- 
fession began to slide into Toryism." His own study of Coke 
led him to extend his researches into the origins of British law, 
and led him also to the rejection of the maxim of Sir Matthew 
Hale, that Christianity is parcel of the laws of England. His 
youthful treatise on this complex and difficult point shows us 
at once the minuteness and the extent of his legal studies. 
While he was a student of law, he was an eye-witness of those 
memorable scenes in the Virginia legislature which followed 
the passage of the stamp-act. He was present as a spectator 
in the house when Patrick Henry read his five resolutions, 
written upon a blank leaf torn from a " Coke upon Lyttleton," 
enunciating the principle that Englishmen living in America 
had all the rights of Englishmen living in England, the chief 
of which was, that they could only be taxed by their own 
representatives. When he was an old man, seated at his table 
at Monticello, he loved to speak of that great day, and to de- 
scribe the thrill and ecstasy of the moment when the wonderful 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 65 

orator, interrupted by cries of " Treason," uttered the well- 
known words of defiance : " If this be treason, make the most 
of it!" Early in 1767, about his twenty-fourth birthday, Jef- 
ferson was admitted to the bar of Virginia, and entered at once 
upon the practice of his profession. Connected through his 
father with the yeomen of the western counties, and through 
his mother with the wealthier planters of the eastern, he had 
not long to wait for business. His first account-book, which 
still exists, shows that in the first year of his practice he was 
employed in sixty-eight cases before the general court of the 
province, besides county and office business. He was an ac- 
curate, painstaking, and laborious practitioner, and his business 
increased until he was employed in nearly five hundred cases 
in a single year, which yielded an average profit of about one 
pound sterling each. He was not a fluent nor a forcible 
speaker, and his voice soon became husky as he proceeded; 
but James Madison, who heard him try a cause, reports that 
he acquitted himself well, and spoke fluently enough for his 
purpose. He loved the erudition of the law, and attached 
great importance to the laws of a country as the best source 
of its history. It was he who suggested and promoted the 
collection of Virginia laws known as " Henning's Statutes at 
Large," to which he contributed the most rare and valuable 
part of the contents. He practised law for nearly eight years, 
until the Revolutionary contest summoned him to other labors. 
His public life began 11 May, 1769, when he took his seat 
as a member of the Virginia house of burgesses, Washington 
being also a member. Jefferson was then twenty-six years old. 
On becoming a public man he made a resolution " never to 
engage, while in public office, in any kind of enterprise for the 
improvement of my fortune, nor to wear any other character 
than that of a farmer." At the close of his public career of 
nearly half a century he could say that he had kept this resolu- 
tion, and he often found the benefit of it in being able to con- 
sider public questions free from the bias of self-interest. This 
session of the burgesses was short. On the third day were 
introduced the famous four resolutions, to the effect that the 
colonies could not be lawfully taxed by a body in which they 
were not represented, and that they might concur, cooperate, 
and practically unite in seeking a redress of grievances. On 
the fifth day of the session the royal governor. Lord Botetourt, 



66 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

dissolved the house ; but the members speedily reassembled in 
the great room of the Raleigh tavern, where similar resolutions, 
with others more pointed, were passed. The decency and 
firmness of these proceedings had their effect. Before many 
months had passed the governor summoned the assembly and 
greeted them with the news that parliament had abandoned 
the system of taxing the colonies — a delusive statement, which 
he, however, fully believed himself authorized to make. Amid 
the joy — too brief — of this supposed change of policy, Jeffer- 
son made his first important speech in the house, in which he 
advocated the repeal of the law that obliged a master who 
wished to free his slaves to send them out of the colony. The 
motion was promptly rejected, and the mover, Mr. Bland, was 
denounced as an enemy to his country. 

On I Jan., 1772, Jefferson married Mrs. Martha Skelton, a 
beautiful and childless young widow, daughter of John Wayles, 
a lawyer in large practice at the Williamsburg bar. His new 
house at Monticello, a view of which is given on page 72, 
was then just habitable, and he took his wife home to it a few 
days after the ceremony. Next year the death of his wife's 
father brought them a great increase of fortune — 40,000 acres 
of land and 135 slaves, which, when the encumbrances were 
discharged, doubled Jefferson's estate. He was now a fortu- 
nate man indeed ; opulent in his circumstances, happily mar- 
ried, and soon a father. We see him busied in the most pleas- 
ing kinds of agriculture, laying out gardens, introducing new 
products, arranging his farms, completing and furnishing his 
house, and making every effort to convert his little mountain, 
covered with primeval forest, into an agreeable and accessible 
park. After numerous experiments he domesticated almost 
every tree and shrub, native and foreign, that could survive 
the severe Virginia winter. 

The contest with the king was soon renewed, and the de- 
cisive year, 1774, opened. It found Thomas Jefferson a thriv- 
ing and busy young lawyer and farmer, not known beyond 
Virginia; but when it closed he was a person of note among 
the patriots of America, and was proscribed in England. It 
was he who prepared the " Draught of Instructions " for Vir- 
ginia's Delegation to the Congress which met at Philadelphia 
in September. That congress, he thought, should unite in a 
solemn address to the king; but they should speak to him in a 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 67 

frank and manly way, informing him, as the chief magistrate 
of an empire governed by many legislatures, that one of those 
legislatures — namely, the British parliament — had encroached 
upon the rights of thirteen others. They were also to say to 
the king that he was no more than the chief officer of the peo- 
ple, appointed by the laws and circumscribed with definite 
powers. He also spoke, in this very radical draught, of "the 
lat^ deposition of his majesty, King Charles, by the Common- 
wealth of England" as a thing obviously right. He maintained 
that the parliament of Virginia had as much right to pass laws 
for the government of the people of England as the British 
legislature had to pass laws for the government of the people of 
Virginia. " Can any one reason be assigned," he asked, "why a 
hundred and sixty thousand electors in the island of Great Brit- 
ain should give law to four millions in the states of America ? " 
The draught, indeed, was so radical on every point that it 
seemed to the ruling British mind of that day mere insolent 
burlesque. It was written, however, by Jefferson in the most 
modest and earnest spirit, showing that, at the age of thirty- 
one, his radical opinions were fully formed, and their expres- 
sion was wholly unqualified by a knowledge of the world be- 
yond the sea. This draught, though not accepted by the con- 
vention, was published in a pamphlet, copies of which were 
sent to England, where Edmund Burke caused it to be repub- 
lished with emendations and additions of his own. It procured 
for the author, to use his own language, " the honor of having 
his name inserted in a long list of proscriptions enrolled in a 
bill ot attainder." The whole truth of the controversy was 
given in this pamphlet, without any politic reserves. 

In March, 1775, Jefferson, who had been kept at Monticello 
for some time by illness, was in Richmond as a member of the 
convention which assembled in the parish church of St. John 
to consider what course Virginia should take in the crisis. It 
was as a member of this body that Patrick Henry, to an 
audience of 150 persons, spoke the prophetic words in solemn 
tones as the key to the enigma: "We must fight! The next 
gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash 
of resounding arms." These sentences, spoken twenty-seven 
days before the affair of Lexington, convinced the convention, 
and it was agreed that Virginia should arm. A committee of 
thirteen was appointed to arrange a plan, among the members 



68 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

of which were Patrick Henry, George Washington, Richard 
Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, the speaker, Edmund Pendle- 
ton, and Thomas Jefferson. The plan they agreed upon was 
this: The populous counties to raise and drill infantry com- 
panies; the other counties horsemen, and both to wear the 
hunting-shirt, which Col. Washington told them was the best 
field uniform he knew of. The last act of this convention was 
to appoint that, in case a vacancy should occur in the delega- 
tion of Virginia to congress, Thomas Jefferson should supply the 
place. A vacancy occurred, and on 20 June, 1775. the day on 
which Washington received his commission as commander-in- 
chief, Jefferson reached Philadelphia, and took his seat the next 
morning in congress. Before the sun set that day congress re- 
ceived news of the stirring battle of Bunker Hill. 

Jefferson was an earnest, diligent, and useful member of the 
congress. John Adams, his fellow-member, describes him as 
" so prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive upon committees and 
in conversation that he soon seized upon my heart." His readi- 
ness in composition, his profound knowledge of British law, 
and his innate love of freedom and justice, gave him solid 
standing in the body. On his return to Virginia he was re- 
elected by a majority that placed him third in the list of seven 
members. After ten days' vacation at home, where he then 
had a house undergoing enlargement, and a household of thirty- 
four whites and eighty-three blacks, with farms in three coun- 
ties to superintend, he returned to congress to take his part in 
the events that led to the complete and formal separation of 
the colonies from the mother-country. In May, 1776, the news 
reached congress that the Virginia convention were unanimous 
for independence, and on 7 June Richard Henry Lee obeyed 
the instructions of the Virginia legislature by moving that in- 
dependence should be declared. On 10 June a committee of 
five was appointed to prepare a draught of the Declaration — 
Jefferson, Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert 
R. Livingston. Mr. Jefferson, being the chairman of the com- 
mittee, was naturally asked to write the document. He then 
lived near what is now the corner of Market and Seventh 
streets. The paper was written in a room of the second floor, 
upon a little writing-desk three inches high, of his own con- 
triving, which still exists. Congress subjected his draught to a 
severe and prolonged revision, making many suppressions, ad- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 60 

ditions, and alterations, most of which were improvements. 
One passage was suppressed in which he gave expression to the 
wounded feelings of the American people in being so unworthi- 
ly treated by brethren and fellow-citizens. The document was 
debated in congress on 2, 3, and 4 July. Thursday, the 4th, 
was a warm day, and the members in the afternoon became 
weary and impatient with the long strain upon their nerves. 
Jefferson used to relate with much merriment that the final vote 
upon the Declaration was hastened by swarms of flies, which 
came from a neighboring stable, and added to the discomfort 
of the members. A few days afterward he was one of a com- 
mittee to devise a seal for the new-born power. Among their 
suggestions (and this was the only one accepted by congress) 
was the best legend ever appropriated, E pluribus unum, a 
phrase that had served as a motto on the cover of the "Gen- 
tleman's Magazine " for many years. It was originally bor- 
rowed from a humorous poem of Virgil's. 

Having thus linked his name imperishably with the birth- 
day of the nation, Jefferson resigned his seat in congress, on 
the ground that the health of his wife and the condition of his 
household made his presence in Virginia indispensable. He had 
also been again elected a member of the Virginia legislature, and 
his heart was set upon the work of purging the statute-books 
of unsuitable laws, and bringing up Virginia to the level of the 
Declaration. He had formed a high conception of the excel- 
lence of the New England governments, and wished to intro- 
duce into his native state the local institutions that had enabled 
those states to act with such efficiency during the war. After 
some stay at home he entered upon this work at Williamsburg, 
where, 8 Oct., 1776, a messenger from congress informed him 
that he had been elected joint commissioner, with Franklin and 
Deane, to represent the United States at Paris. After three 
days of consideration, he resisted the temptation to go abroad, 
feeling that his obligations to his family and his state made it 
his duty to remain at home. In reorganizing Virginia, Jefferson 
and his friends struck first at the system of entail, which, after 
three weeks' earnest debate, was totally destroyed, so that all 
property in Virginia was held in fee simple and could be sold 
for debt. He next attempted, by a short and simple enactment, 
to abolish the connection between church and state. He was 
able to accomplish but a small portion of this reform at that 



70 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



session, but the work was begun, and nine years later the law 
drawn by Jefferson, entitled " An Act for establishing Religious 
Freedom," completed the severance. This triumph of equal 
rights over ancient prejudices and restriction Jefferson always 
regarded as one of his most important contributions to the 
happiness of his country. Some of his utterances on this sub- 
ject have passed into familiar proverbs : " Government has 
nothing to do with opinion," " Compulsion makes hypocrites, 
not converts," " It is error alone which needs the support of 
government; truth can stand by itself." It was he who drew 
the bill for establishing courts of law in the state, and for pre- 
scribing their powers and methods. It was he also who caused 
the removal of the capital to Richmond. He carried the bill 
extirpating the principle of primogeniture. It was the com- 
mittee of which he was chairman that abolished the cruel pen- 
alties of the ancient code, and he made a most earnest attempt 
to establish a system of public education in the state. During 
two years he and his colleagues, Hamiliton, Wythe, Mason, and 
Francis Lightfoot Lee, toiled at the reconstruction of Virginia 
law, during which they accomplished all that was then possible, 
besides proposing many measures that were passed at a later 
day. He could write to Dr. Franklin in 1777 that the people 
of Virginia had " laid aside the monarchical and taken up the 
republican government with as much ease as would have at- 
tended their throwing off an old and putting on a new suit of 
clothes." It was Jefferson and his friends who wrought this 
salutary change, and they were able to effect it because, during 
the first three years of the war, Virginia was almost exempt 
from disturbance. In the spring of 1779, when Burgoyne's 
army, as prisoners of war, were encamped near Monticello, Jef- 
fersonn was assiduous in friendly attentions both to the British 
and the Hessians, throwing open his house and grounds to 
them, and arranging many agreeable concerts for their enter- 
tainment. A British captain, himself a good violinist, who 
played duets with Jefferson at this time, told the late Gen. John 
A. Dix, of New York, that Thomas Jefferson was the best ama- 
teur he had ever heard. 

In January, 1779, the Virginia legislature elected Jefferson 
governor of the state, to succeed Patrick Henry, whose third 
term ended on i June. The two years of his governorship 
proved to be the severest trial of his life. With slender and 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 7 1 

fast diminishing resources, he had to keep up the Virginia regi- 
ments in the army of Washington, and at the same time to send 
all possible supplies to the support of Gen. Gates in his south- 
ern campaign. The western Indians were a source of con- 
stant solicitude, and they were held in check by that brave and 
energetic neighbor of Gov. Jefferson, George Rogers Clarke. 
The British and Hessian prisoners also had to be supplied and 
guarded. In the midst of his first anxieties he began the re- 
organization that he had long desired of the College of Wil- 
liam and Mary. Soon, however, his attention was wholly ab- 
sorbed by the events of the war. On 16 Aug., 1780, occurred 
the disastrous defeat of Gates at Camden, which destroyed in a 
day all that Jefferson had toiled to accumulate in warlike ma- 
terial during eight agonizmg weeks. On the last day of 1780, 
Arnold's fleet of twenty-seven sail anchored in Chesapeake bay, 
and Arnold, with nine hundred men, penetrated as far as Rich- 
mond ; but Jefferson had acted with so much promptitude, and 
was so ably seconded by the county militia, that the traitor 
held Richmond but twenty-three hours, and escaped total de- 
struction only through a timely change in the wind, which bore 
him down the river with extraordinary swiftness. In five days 
from the first summons twenty-five hundred militia were in 
pursuit of Arnold, and hundreds more were coming in every 
hour. For eighty-four hours Gov. Jefferson was almost con- 
tinuously in the saddle; and for many months after Arnold's 
first repulse, not only the governor, but all that Virginia had 
left of manhood, resources, and credit were absorbed in the 
contest. Four times in the spring of 1781 the legislature of 
A^irginia was obliged to adjourn and fly before the approach 
or the threat of an enemy. Monticello was captured by a troop 
of horse, and Jefferson himself narrowly escaped. Cornw^llis 
lived for ten days in the governor's house at Elk Hill, a hun- 
dred miles down the James, where he destroyed all the grow- 
ing crops, burned the barns, carried off the horses, killed the 
colts, and took away twenty-seven slaves. During the public 
disasters of that time there was the usual disposition among a 
portion of the people to cast the blame upon the administration 
and Jefferson himself was of the opinion that, in such a des- 
perate crisis, it was best that the civil and the military power 
should be intrusted to the same hand. He therefore declined 
a re-election to a third term, and induced his friends to support 



72 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Gen. Thomas Nelson, commander-in-chief of the militia, who 
was elected. The capture of Cornwallis in November, 1781, 
atoned for all the previous suffering and disaster. A month 
later Jefferson rose in his place in the legislature and declared 
his readiness to answer any charges that might be brought 
against his administration of the government ; but no one re- 
sponded. After a pause, a member offered a resolution thank- 
ing him for his impartial, upright, and attentive discharge of 
his duty, which was passed without a dissenting voice. 

On 6 Sept., 1782, Jefferson's wife died, to his unspeakable 
and lasting sorrow, leaving three daughters, the youngest four 
months old. During the stupor caused by this event he was 
elected by a unanimous vote of congress, and, as Madison re- 
ports, "without a single adverse remark," plenipotentiary to 
France, to treat for peace. He gladly accepted ; but, before he 
sailed, the joyful news came that preliminaries of peace had 
been agreed to, and he returned to Monticello. In June, 1783, 
he was elected to congress, and in November took his seat at 
Annapolis. Here, as chairman of a committee on the currency, 

he assisted to give 
U^, us the decimal cur- 

rency now in use. 
The happy idea orig- 
inated with Gouver- 
neur Morris, of New 
York, but with de- 
tails too cumbrous 
for common use 
Jefferson proposed 

" ''■'^^r^<ci4£^-^-^^'-^"-^^-'^--='---'^ ' our present system 

of dollars and cents, 
with dimes, half-dimes, and a great gold coin of ten dollars, 
with subdivisions, such as we have now. Jefferson strongly 
desired also to apply the decimal system to all measures. When 
he travelled he carried with him an odometer, which divided 
the miles into hundredths, which he called cents. " I find," 
said he, " that every one comprehends a distance readily when 
stated to him in miles and cents; so he would in feet and cents, 
pounds and cents." 

On 7 May, 1784, congress elected Jefferson for a third time 
plenipotentiary to France, to join Franklin and Adams in nego- 




THOMAS JEFFERSON. 7-5 

tiating commercial treaties with foreign powers. On 5 July- 
he sailed from Boston upon this mission, and thirty-two days 
later took up his abode in Paris. On 2 May, 1785, he received 
from Mr. Jay his commission appointing him sole minister 
plenipotentiary to the king of France for three years from 10 
March, 1785. "You replace Dr. Franklin," said the Count de 
Vergennes to him, when he announced his appointment. Jef- 
ferson replied: "I succeed; no one can replace him." The 
impression that France made upon Jefferson's mind was pain- 
ful in the extreme. While enjoying the treasures of art that 
Paris presented, and particularly its music, fond of the people, 
too, relishing their amiable manners, their habits and tastes, 
he was nevertheless appalled at the cruel oppression of the 
ancient system of government. "The people," said he, " are 
ground to powder by the vices of the form of government," 
and he wrote to Madison that government by hereditary rulers 
was a " government of wolves over sheep, or kites over pig- 
eons." Beaumarchais's " Marriage of Figaro " was in its first 
run when Jefferson settled in Paris, and the universal topic of 
conversation was the defects of the established regime. Upon 
the whole, he enjoyed and assiduously improved his five years' 
residence in Europe. His official labors were arduous and con- 
stant. He strove, though in vain, to procure the release of 
American captives in Algiers without paying the enormous 
ransom demanded by the dey. With little more success, he 
endeavored to break into the French protective system, which 
kept from the kingdom the cheap food that America could 
supply, and for want of which the people were perishing and 
the monarchy was in peril. He kept the American colleges 
advised of the new inventions, discoveries, and books of 
Europe. He was particularly zealous in sending home seeds, 
roots, and nuts for trial in American soil. During his journey 
to Italy he procured a quantity of the choicest rice for the 
planters of South Carolina, and he supplied Buffon with Ameri- 
can skins, skeletons, horns, and similar objects for his collection. 
In Paris he published his " Notes on Virginia," both in French 
and English, a work full of information concerning its main 
subject, and at the same time surcharged with the republican 
sentiment then so grateful to the people of France. In 1786, 
when at length the Virginia legislature passed his "Act for 
Freedom of Religion," he had copies of it printed for distribu- 



74 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



tion, and it was received with rapture by the advanced Liber- 
als. It was his custom while travelling in France to enter the 
houses of the peasants and converse with them upon their 
affairs and condition. He would contrive to sit upon the bed, 
in order to ascertain what it was made of, and get a look into 
the boiling pot, to see what was to be the family dinner. He 
strongly advised Lafayette to do the same, saying: "You 
must ferret the people out of their hovels as I have done, look 
into their kettles, eat their bread, loll on their beds, on pre- 
tence of resting yourself, but in fact to find if they are soft." 
His letters are full of this subject. He returns again and 
again to the frightful inequalities of condition, the vulgarity 
and incapacity of the hereditary rulers, and the hopeless des- 
tiny of nineteen twentieths of the people. His compassion for 
the people of France was the more intense from his strong ap- 
preciation of their excellent qualities. Having received a 
leave of absence for six months, he returned with his daugh- 
ters to Virginia, landing at Norfolk, i8 Nov., 1789. His recep- 
tion was most cordial. The legislature appointed a committee 
of thirteen, with Patrick Henry at their head, to congratulate 
him on his return, and on the day of his landing he read in a 
newspaper that President Washington, in settling the new 
government, had assigned to Thomas Jefferson the office of 
secretary of state. " I made light of it," he wrote soon after- 
ward, "supposing I had only to say no, and there would be an 
end of it." On receiving the official notification of his appoint- 
ment, he told the president that he preferred to retain the 
ofifice he held. " But," he added, " it is not for an individual 
to choose his post. You are to marshal us as may be best for 
the public good." He finally accepted the appointment, and 
after witnessing at Monticello, 23 Feb., 1790, the marriage of 
his eldest daughter, Martha, to Thomas Mann Randolph, he 
began his journey to New York. During his absence in France, 
his youngest daughter, Lucy, had died, leaving him Martha 
and Maria. On Sunday, 21 March, 1790, he reached New York, 
to enter upon the duties of his new office. He hired a house 
at No. 57 Maiden Lane, the city then containing a population 
of 35,000. His colleagues in the cabinet were Alexander 
Hamilton, secretary of the treasury; Henry Knox, secretary 
of war; and Edmund Randolph, attorney-general. Jefferson's 
salary was only $3,500, and that of the other three mem- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



75 



bers of the cabinet but $3,000, a compensation that proved 
painfully inadequate. 

He soon found himself ill at ease in his place. He had 
left Paris when the fall of the Bastile was a recent event, and 
when the revolutionary movement still promised to hopeful 
spirits the greatest good to France and to Europe. He had 
been consulted at every stage of its progress by Lafayette and 
the other Republican leaders, with whom he was in the deepest 
sympathy. He left his native land a Whig of the Revolution ; 
he returned to it a Republican-Democrat. In his reply to the 
congratulations of his old constituents, he had spoken of the 
"sufficiency of human reason for the care of human affairs." 
He declared " the will of the majority to be the natural law of 
every society, and the only sure guardian of the rights of man." 
He added these important words, which contain the most ma- 
terial article of his political creed : " Perhaps even this may 
sometimes err; but its errors are honest, solitary, and short- 
lived. Let us, then, forever bow down to the general reason 
of society. We are safe with that, even in its deviations, for 
it soon returns again to the right way." To other addresses 
of welcome he replied in a similar tone. He brought to New 
York a settled conviction that the republican is the only form 
of government that is not robbery and violence organized. 
Feeling thus, he was grieved and astonished to find a distrust 
of republican government prevalent in society, and to hear a 
preference for the monarchical form frequently expressed. In 
the cabinet itself, where Hamilton dominated and Knox echoed 
his opinions, the republic was accepted rather as a temporary 
expedient than as a final good. Jefferson and Hamilton, rep- 
resenting diverse and incompatible tendencies, soon found 
themselves in ill-accord, and their discussions in the cabinet 
became vehement. They differed in some degree upon almost 
every measure of the administration, and on several of the 
most vital their differences became passionate and distressing. 
In May, 1791, by openly accepting and eulogizing Thomas 
Paine's " Rights of Man," a spirited reply to Burke's " Reflec- 
tions on the Revolution in France," Jefferson placed himself 
at the head of the Republican parly in the United States. The 
difference between the two chief members of the cabinet rapidly 
developed into a personal antipathy, and both of them ardently 
desired to withdraw. Both, however, could have borne these 



76 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



disagreeable dissensions, and we see in their later letters that 
the real cause of their longing to resign was the insufficiency 
of their salaries. Jefferson's estate, much diminished by the 
war, was of little profit to him in the absence of the master's 
eye. Gen. Washington, who did equal justice to the merits of 
both these able men, used all his influence and tact to induce 
them to remain, and, yielding to the president's persuasions, 
both made an honest attempt at external agreement. But 
in truth their feelings, as well as their opinions, were naturally 
irreconcilable. Their attitude toward the French revolution 
proves this. Hamilton continually and openly expressed an 
undiscrimmating abhorrence of it, while Jefferson deliberately 
wrote that if the movement " had isolated half the earth," the 
evil would have been less than the continuance of the ancient 
system. Writing to an old friend he went farther even than 
this : " Were there but an Adam and an Eve left in every coun- 
try, and left free, it would be better than as it now is." On 
every point of difficulty created by the French revolution the 
disagreement between the two secretaries was extreme. On 
other subjects there was little real concord, and it was a happy 
moment for both when, on i Jan., 1794, President Washington 
accepted Jefferson's resignation. He left office at a fortunate 
time for his reputation, since his correspondence with the Eng- 
lish plenipotentiary, George Hammond, and the French pleni- 
potentiary, Edmond Genet, had just been published in a large 
pamphlet. Jefferson's letters to those gentlemen were so 
moderate, so just, and so conciliatory as to extort the ap- 
proval of his opponents. Chief-Justice Marshall, an extreme 
Federalist, remarks, in his " Life of Washington," that this 
correspondence lessened the hostility of Jefferson's opponents 
without diminishing the attachment of his friends. Five days 
after his release from office he set out for home, having been 
secretary of state three years and ten months. 

All his interest in the cultivation of the soil now returned 
to him, and he supposed his public life ended forever. In Sep- 
tember, 1794, after the retirement of Hamilton from the cab- 
inet, Washington invited Jefferson to go abroad as special en- 
voy to Spain ; but he declined, declaring that " no circum- 
stances would evermore tempt him to engage in anything pub- 
lic." Nevertheless, in 1796, Washington having refused to 
serve a third term in the presidency, he allowed his name to be 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



77 



used as that of a candidate for the succession. The contest 
was embittered by the unpopularity of the Jay treaty with 
Great Britain. Jefferson had desired the rejection of the 
treaty, and he remained always of the opinion that by its 
rejection the government of the United States might at 
length have secured "a respect for our neutral rights " without 
a war. Jefferson had a narrow escape from being elected to 
the presidency in 1796. John Adams received seventy-one 
electoral votes, and Jefferson sixty-eight, a result that, as the 
law then stood, gave him the vice-presidency. In view of the 
duties about to devolve upon him, he began to prepare, chiefly 
for his own guidance in the chair of the senate, his " Manual 
of Parliamentary Practice," a code that still substantially gov- 
erns all our deliberative bodies. He deeply felt the impor- 
tance of such rules, believing that when strictly enforced they 
operated as a check on the majority, and gave " shelter and 
protection to the minority against the attempts of power." 
Jefferson much enjoyed the office of vice-president, partly 
from the interest he took in the art of legislation and partly 
because his presidency of the Philosophical society brought 
him into agreeable relations with the 
most able minds of the country. He 
took no part whatever in the admin- 
istration of the government, as Mr. 
Adams ceased to consult him on po- 
litical measures almost immediately 
after his inauguration. The adminis- 
tration of Adams, so turbulent and 
eventful, inflamed party spirit to an 
extreme degree. The reactionary pol- 
icy of Hamilton and his friends had full scope, as is shown by 
the passage of the alien and sedition laws, and by the warlike 
preparations against France. During the first three years 
Jefferson endeavored in various ways to influence the public 
mind, and thus to neutralize in some degree the active and 
aggressive spirit of Hamilton. He was clearly of opinion 
that the alien and sedition laws were not merely unconsti- 
tutional, but were so subversive of fundamental human rights 
as to justify a nullification of them. The Kentucky reso- 
lutions of 1798, in which his abhorrence of those laws was ex- 
pressed, were originally drawn by him at the request of James 




yS LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

Madison and Col. W. C. Nicholas. " These gentlemen," Jef- 
ferson once wrote, "pressed me strongly to sketch resolutions 
against the constitutionality of those laws." In consequence 
he drew and delivered them to Col. Nicholas, who introduced 
them into the legislature of Kentucky, and kept the secret of 
their authorship. These resolutions, read in the light of the 
events of 1798, will not now be disapproved by any person of 
republican convictions; they remain, and will long remain, one 
of the most interesting and valuable contributions to the sci- 
ence of free government. It is fortunate that this commentary 
upon the alien and sedition laws was written by a man so firm 
and so moderate, who possessed at once the erudition, the wis- 
dom, and the feeling that the subject demanded. 

Happily the presidential election of 1800 freed the country 
from those laws without a convulsion. Through the unskilful 
politics of Hamilton and the adroit management of the New 
York election by Aaron Burr, Mr. Adams was defeated for re- 
election, the electoral vote resulting thus : Jefferson, 73 ; Burr, 
73; Adams, 65 ; Charles C. Pinckney, 64 ; Jay, i. This strange 
result threw the election into the house of representatives, 
where the Federalists endeavored to elect Burr to the first 
ofifice — an unworthy intrigue, which Hamilton honorably op- 
posed. After a period of excitement, which seemed at times 
fraught with peril to the Union, the election was decided as 
the people meant it should be: Thomas Jefferson became presi- 
dent of the United States and Aaron Burr vice-president. The 
inauguration was celebrated throughout the country as a na- 
tional holiday ; soldiers paraded, church-bells rang, orations 
were delivered, and in some of the newspapers the Declara- 
tion of Independence was printed at length. Jefferson's first 
thought on coming to the presidency was to assuage the vio- 
lence of party spirit, and he composed his fine inaugural address 
with that view. He reminded his fellow-citizens that a differ- 
ence of opinion is not a difference of principle. " We are all 
Republicans, we are all Federalists. If there be any among us 
who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its repub- 
lican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the 
safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where 
reason is left free to combat it." He may have had Hamilton 
in mind in writing this sentence, and, in truth, his inaugural 
was the briefest and strongest summary he could pen of his 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. -jf^ 

argument against Hamilton when both were in Washington's 
cabinet. " Some honest men," said he, " fear that a republican 
government cannot be strong — that this government is not 
strong enough. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest 
on earth. I believe it is the only one where every man, at the 
call of the laws, would fly to the standard of the law, and 
would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal 
concern." Among the first acts of President Jefferson was his 
pardoning every man who was in durance under the sedition 
law, which he said he considered to be " a nullity as absolute 
and palpable as if congress had ordered us to fall down and 
worship a golden image." To the chief victims of the alien 
law, such as Kosciuszko and Volney, he addressed friendly, 
consoling letters. Dr. Priestley, menaced with expulsion under 
the alien law, he invited to the White House. He wrote a 
noble letter to the venerable Samuel Adams, of Massachusetts, 
who had been avoided and insulted during the recent contest. 
He gave Thomas Paine, outlawed in England and living on 
sufferance in Paris, a passage home in a national ship. He 
appointed as his cabinet James Madison, secretary of state ; 
Albert Gallatin, secretary of the treasury; Henry Dearborn, 
secretary of war ; Robert Smith, secretary of the navy ; Gideon 
Granger, postmaster-general; Levi Lincoln, attorney-general 
— all of whom were men of liberal education. With his cabinet 
he lived during the whole of his two terms in perfect harmony, 
and at the end he declared that if he had to choose again he 
would select the same individuals. With regard to appoint- 
ments and removals the new president found himself in an 
embarrassing position, as all our presidents have done. Most 
of the offices were held by Federalists, and many of his own 
partisans expected removals enough to establish an equality. 
Jefferson resisted the demand. He made a few removals for 
strong and obvious reasons; but he acted uniformly on the 
principle that a difference of politics was not a reason for the 
removal of a competent and faithful subordinate. The few 
removals that he made were either for official misconduct, or, 
to use his own language, "active and bitter opposition to the 
order of things which the public will has established." He 
abolished at once the weekly levee at the White House, as well 
as the system of precedence that had been copied from the 
court etiquette of Europe. When congress assembled he sent 



8o LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

them a message, instead of delivering to them a speech, which 
had the effect of preventing, as he remarked, " the bloody con- 
flict to which the making an answer would have committed 
them." He abolished also all the usages that savored of roy- 
alty, such as the conveyance of ministers in national vessels, 
the celebration of his own birthday by a public ball, the ap- 
pointment of fasts and thanksgiving-days, the making of public 
tours and official visits. He refused to receive, while travel- 
ling, any mark of attention that would not have been paid to 
him as a private citizen, his object being both to republicanize 
and secularize the government completely. He declined also 
to use the pardoning power unless the judges who had tried 
the criminal signed the petition. He refused also to notice in 
any way the abuse of hostile newspapers, desiring, as he said, 
to give the world a proof that " an administration which has 
nothing to conceal from the press has nothing to fear from it." 
A few of the acts of Mr. Jefferson's administration, which 
includes a great part of the history of the United States for 
eight years, stand out boldly and brilliantly. That navy 
which had been created by the previous administration against 
France, Jefferson at once reduced by putting all but six of its 
vessels out of commission. He despatched four of the remain- 
ing six to the Mediterranean to overawe the Barbary pirates, 
who had been preying upon American commerce for twenty 
years; and Decatur and his heroic comrades executed their 
task with a gallantry and success which the American people 
have not forgotten. The purchase of Louisiana was a happy 
result of the president's tact and promptitude in availing him- 
self of a golden chance. Bonaparte, in pursuit of his early 
policy of undoing the work of the seven-years' war, had ac- 
quired the vast unknown territory west of the Mississippi, then 
vaguely called Louisiana. This policy he had avowed, and 
he was preparing an expedition to hold New Orleans and settle 
the adjacent country. At the same time, the people of Ken- 
tucky, who, through the obstinate folly of the Spanish gov- 
ernor, were practically denied access to the ocean, were inflamed 
with discontent. At this juncture, in the spring of 1803, hos- 
tilities were renewed between France and England, which com- 
pelled Bonaparte to abandon the expedition which was ready 
to sail, and he determined to raise money by selling Louisiana 
to the United States. At the happiest possible moment for a 







■i 

^ 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 8 1 

successful negotiation, Mr. Jefferson's special envoy, James 
Monroe, arrived in Paris, charged with full powers, and alive 
to the new and pressing importance of the transfer, and a few 
hours of friendly parleying sufficed to secure to the United 
States this superb domain, one of the most valuable on the 
face of the globe. Bonaparte demanded fifty millions of 
francs. Marbois, his negotiator, asked a hundred millions, but 
dropped to sixty, with the condition that the United States 
should assume all just claims upon the territory. Thus, for 
the trivial sum of little more than $15,000,000, the United 
States secured the most important acquisition of territory that 
was ever made by purchase. Both parties were satisfied with 
the bargain. " This accession," said the first consul, " strength- 
ens forever the power of the United States, and I have just 
given to England a maritime rival that will sooner or later 
humble her pride." The popularity of the administration soon 
became such that the opposition was reduced to insignificance, 
and the president was re-elected by a greatly increased ma- 
jority. In the house of representatives the Federalists shrank 
at length to a little band of twenty-seven, and in the senate 
to five. Jefferson seriously feared that there would not be 
sufficient opposition to furnish the close and ceaseless criticism 
that the public good required. His second term was less 
peaceful and less fortunate. During the long contest between 
Bonaparte and the allied powers the infractions of neutral 
rights were so frequent and so exasperating that perhaps Jef- 
ferson alone, aided by his fine temper and detestation of war, 
could have kept the infant republic out of the brawl. When 
the English ship " Leopard," within hearing of Old Point Com- 
fort, poured broadsides into the American frigate " Chesa- 
peake," all unprepared and unsuspecting, killing three men 
and wounding eighteen, parties ceased to exist in the United 
States, and every voice that was audible clamored for bloody 
reprisals. " I had only to open my hand," wrote Jefferson 
once, " and let havoc loose." There was a period in 1807 when 
he expected war both with Spain and Great Britain, and his 
confidential correspondence with Madison shows that he meant 
to make the contest self-compensating. He meditated a scheme 
for removing the Spanish flag to a more comfortable distance 
by the annexation of Florida, Mexico, and Cuba, and thus 
obtaining late redress for twenty-five years of intrigue and 



82 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

injury. A partial reparation by Great Britain postponed the 
contest. Yet the offences were repeated; no American ship 
was safe from violation, and no American sailor from impress- 
ment. This state of things induced Jefferson to recommend 
congress to suspend commercial intercourse with the belliger- 
ents, his object being "to introduce between nations another 
umpire than arms." The embargo of 1807, which continued to 
the end of his second term, imposed upon the commercial 
states a test too severe for human nature patiently to endure. 
It was frequently violated, and did not accomplish the object 
proposed. To the end of his life Jefferson was of opinion 
that, if the whole people had risen to the height of his endeav- 
or, if the merchants had strictly observed the embargo, and 
the educated class given it a cordial support, it would have 
saved the country the second war of 18 12, and extorted, what 
that war did not give us, a formal and explicit concession of 
neutral rights. 

On 4 March, 1809, after a nearly continuous public service 
of forty-four years, Jefferson retired to private life, so serious- 
ly impoverished that he was not sure of being allowed to 
leave Washington without arrest by his creditors. The em- 
bargo, by preventing the exportation of tobacco, had reduced 
his private income two thirds, and, in the peculiar circum- 
stances of Washington, his official salary was insufficient. 
Since I have become sensible of this deficit," he wrote, "I have 
been under an agony of mortification." A timely loan from a 
Richmond bank relieved him temporarily from his distress, but 
he remained to the end of his days more or less embarrassed in 
his circumstances. Leaving the presidency in the hands of 
James Madison, with whom he was in the most complete sym- 
pathy and with whom he continued to be in active correspond- 
ence, he was still a power in the nation. Madison and Monroe 
were his neighbors and friends, and both of them administered 
the government on principles that he cordially approved. As 
has been frequently remarked, they were three men and one 
system. On retiring to Monticello in 1809, Jefferson was sixty- 
six years of age, and had seventeen years to live. His daugh- 
ter Martha and her husband resided with him, they and their 
numerous brood of children, six daughters and five sons, to 
whom was now added Francis Eppes, the son of his daughter 
Maria, who had died in 1804. Surrounded thus by children 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 83 

and grandchildren, he spent the leisure of his declining years 
in endeavoring to establish in Virginia a system of education 
to embrace all the children of his native state. In this he was 
most zealously and ably assisted by his friend, Joseph C. 
Cabell, a member of the Virginia senate. What he planned in 
the study, Cabell supported in the legislature; and then in turn 
Jefferson would advocate Cabell's bill by one of his ingenious 
and exhaustive letters, which would go the rounds of the Vir- 
ginia press. The correspondence of these two patriots on the 
subject of education in Virginia was afterward published in an 
octavo of 528 pages, a noble monument to the character of 
both. Jefferson appealed to every motive, including self-inter- 
est, urging his scheme upon the voter as a " provision for his 
family to the remotest posterity." He did not live long enough 
to see his system of common schools established in Virginia, 
but the university, which was to crown that system, a darling 
dream of his heart for forty years, he beheld in successful 
operation. His friend Cabell, with infinite difficulty, induced 
the legislature to expend $300,000 in the work of construction, 
and to appropriate $15,000 a year toward the support of the 
institution. Jefferson personally superintended every detail of 
the construction. He engaged workmen, bought bricks, and 
selected the trees to be felled for timber. In March, 1825, the 
institution was opened with forty students, a number which 
was mcreased to 177 at the beginning of the second year. The 
institution has continued its beneficent work to the present 
day, and still bears the imprint of Jefferson's mind. It has no 
president, except that one of the professors is elected chairman 
of the faculty. The university bestows no rewards and no 
honors, and attendance upon all religious services is voluntary. 
His intention was to hold every student to his responsibility as 
a man and a citizen, and to permit him to enjoy all the liberty 
of other citizens in the same community. Toward the close 
of his life Jefferson became distressingly embarrassed in his 
circumstances. In 1814 he sold his library to congress for 
$23,000 — about one fourth of its value. A few years afterward 
he endorsed a twenty-thousand-dollar note for a friend and 
neighbor whom he could not refuse, and who soon became 
bankrupt. This loss, which added $1,200 a year to his ex- 
penses, completed his ruin, and he was in danger of being 
compelled to surrender Monticello and seek shelter for his last 
7 



84 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



days in another abode. Philip Hone, mayor of New York, 
raised for him, in 1826, $8,500, to which Philadelphia added 
$5,000 and Baltimore $3,000. He was deeply touched by the 
spontaneous generosity of his countrymen. " No cent of this," 
he wrote, " is wrung from the tax-payer. It is the pure and 
unsolicited offering of love." He retained his health nearly to 
his last days, and had the happiness of living to the fiftieth 
anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. He died at 
twenty minutes to one p.m., 4 July, 1826. John Adams died a 
few hours later on the same day, saying, just before he breathed 
his last, "Thomas Jefferson still lives." He was buried in his 
own grave-yard at Monticello, beneath a 
stone upon which was engraved an in- 
scription prepared by his own hand: 
" Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, au- 
thor of the Declaration of American In- 
dependence, of the Statute of Virginia for 
Religious Freedom, and Father of the 
University of Virginia." He died solvent, 
for the sale of his estate discharged his 
debts to the uttermost farthing. His 
daughter and her children lost their home 
and had no means of support. Their circumstances becoming 
known, the legislature of South Carolina and Virginia each 
voted her a gift of $10,000, which gave peace and dignity to 
the remainder of her life. She died in 1836, aged sixty-three, 
leaving numerous descendants. 

The writings of Thomas Jefferson were published by order 
of Congress in 1853, under the editorial supervision of Henry 
A. Washington 9 vols., 8vo. (Washington, D. C, 1853). This 
publication, which leaves much to be desired by the student 
of American history, includes his autobiography, treatises, es- 
says, selections from his correspondence, official reports, mes- 
sages, and addresses. Two score years later Prof. Washing- 
ton's work was superseded by " The Writings of Thomas 
Jefferson, comprising his Public Papers and his Private Corre- 
spondence, including Numerous Letters and Documents, now 
for the First Time Printed," edited by Paul L. Ford, 10 vols., 
8vo. (vols. I-IV. New York, 1894). The most extensive 
biography of Jefferson is that of Henry S. Randall (3 vols., 
New York, 1858). See also the excellent work of Prof. 




THOMAS JEFFERSON. 85 

George Tucker, of the University of Virginia, " The Life 
of Thomas Jefferson " (2 vols., Philadelphia and London, 
1837); "The Life of Thomas Jefferson," by James Parton 
(Boston, 1874); and "Thomas Jefferson," by John T. Morse, 
Jr., "American Statesmen" series (Boston, 1883). A work 
of singular interest is " The Domestic Life of Thomas Jef- 
ferson," by his great-granddaughter, Sarah N. Randolph 
(New York, 1871). Jefferson's "Manual of Parliamentary 
Practice" has been repeatedly republished; the Washington 
edition of 187 1 is among the most recent. Consult also the 
" Memoirs, Correspondence, and Miscellanies of Thomas Jef- 
ferson," by Thomas J. Randolph (4 vols., Boston, 1830), and 
the " History of the United States, by Henry Adams, Vols. I 
to IV, Jefferson's Administration, 1801-1809" (New York, 
1889, 1890). The lovers of detail must not overlook "Jeffer- 
son at Monticello," compiled by Rev. Hamilton W. Pierson, 
D. D., of Kentucky, from conversations with Edmund Bacon, 
who was for twenty years Jefferson's steward and overseer. 
The correspondence between Jefferson and Cabell upon edu- 
cation in Virginia is very rare. An impression of President 
Jefferson's seal, shown in the illustration on page 77, from 
which the vignette is copied, was in the possession of the late 
historian George Bancroft. 

The portraits of Jefferson, which were as numerous in his 
own time as those of a reigning monarch usually are, may well 
baffle the inquirer who would know the express image of his 
face and person. They differ greatly from one another, as 
in truth he changed remarkably in appearance as he advanced 
in life, being in youth raw-boned, freckled, and somewhat un- 
gainly, in early manhood better looking, and in later life be- 
coming almost handsome — in friendly eyes. The portrait by 
Rembrandt Peale, taken in 1803, which now hangs in the 
library of the New York historical society, is perhaps the most 
pleasing of the later pictures of him now accessible. The por- 
trait by Matthew Brown, painted for John Adams in 1786, and 
engraved for this work, has the merit of presenting him in the 
prime of his years. Daniel Webster's minute description of 
his countenance and figure at fourscore was not accepted by 
Mr. Jefferson's grandchildren as conveying the true impression 
of the man. " Never in my life," wrote one of them, "did I 
see his countenance distorted by a single bad passion or un- 



86 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

worthy feeling. I have seen the expression of suffering, bodily 
and mental, of grief, pain, sadness, just indignation, disappoint- 
ment, disagreeable surprise, and displeasure, but never of 
anger, impatience, peevishness, discontent, to say nothing of 
worse or more ignoble emotions. To the contrary, it was im- 
possible to look on his face without being struck with its 
benevolent, intelligent, cheerful, and placid expression. It 
was at once intellectual, good, kind, and pleasant, whilst his 
tall, spare figure spoke of health, activity, and that helpfulness, 
that power and will, ' never to trouble another for what he 
could do himself,' which marked his character." 

His wife, Martha Wayles, born in Charles City county, 
Va., 19 Oct., 1748; died at Monticello, near Charlottesville, Va., 
6 Sept., 1782, was the daughter of John Wayles, a wealthy 
lawyer, from whom she inherited a large property. Her first 
husband, Bathurst Skelton, died before she was twenty years 
of age, and Mr. Jefferson was one of her many suitors. She is 
described as very beautiful, a little above middle height, 
auburn-haired, and of a dignified carriage. She was well edu- 
cated for her day, and a constant reader. Previous to her 
second marriage, while her mind seemed still undecided as to 
which of her many lovers would be accepted, two of them met 
accidentally in the hall of her father's house. They were about 
to enter the drawing-room when the sound of music caught 
their ear. The voices of Jefferson and Mrs. Skelton, accom- 
panied by her harpsichord and his violin, were recognized, and 
the disconcerted lovers, after exchanging a glance, took their 
hats and departed. She married Mr. Jefferson in 1772. He 
retained a romantic devotion for her throughout his life, and 
because of her failing health refused foreign appointments in 
1776, and again in 1781, having promised that he would accept 
no public office that would involve their separation. For four 
months previous to her death he was never out of calling, and 
he was insensible for several hours after that event. Two of 
their children died in infancy, Martha, Mary, and Lucy Eliza- 
beth surviving, the latter dying in early girlhood. 

Martha, born at Monticello in September, 1772 ; died in 
Albemarle county, Va., 27 Sept., 1836, after the death of her 
mother accompanied her father to Europe in 1784 and re- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



87 



mained several years in a convent, until her desire to adopt a 
religious life induced her father to remove her from the school. 
In the autumn of the same year (1789) she married her cousin, 
Thomas Mann Randolph, afterward governor of Virginia, and, 
being engrossed with the cares of her large family, passed 
only a portion of her time in the White House, which she 
visited with her husband and children in 1802, with her sister 
in 1803, and during the winter of i8o5-'6. After the retire- 
ment of Mr. Jefferson she devoted much of her life to his de- 
clining years. He describes her as the " cherished companion 
of his youth and the nurse of his old age," and shortly before 
his death remarked that the " last pang of life was parting with 
her." After the business reverses and 
the death of her father and husband, 
she contemplated establishing a school, 
but was relieved from the necessity by 
a donation of $10,000 each from South 
Carolina and Virginia. She left a large 
family of sons and daughters, whom she 
carefully educated. The accompany- 
ing portrait represents Mrs. Randolph. 
There is no known portrait of Mrs. Jef- 
ferson. — Her sister, Mary, born at Mon- 
ticello, I Aug., 1778; died in Albemarle 
county, Va., 17 April, 1804, was also ed- 
ucated in the convent at Panthemont, 
France, and is described, in a letter of 

Mrs. Abigail Adams, "as one of the most beautiful and remark- 
able children she had ever known." She married her cousin, 
John Wayles Eppes, early in life, but was prevented by delicate 
health from the enjoyment of social life. She spent the second 
winter of Mr. Jefferson's first term with her sister as mistress 
of the White House. She left two children, one of whom, 
Francis, survived. — Jefferson's last surviving granddaughter, 
Mrs. Septima Randolph Meikleham, died in Washington, D, C, 
on 16 Sept., 1887. See "The Domestic Life of Thomas Jeffer- 
son," by Miss Sarah N. Randolph (New York, 187 1). 




(^o^a^yi^ 



JAMES MADISON. 

James Madison, fourth president of the United States, 
born in Port Conway, Va., i6 March, 1751 ; died at Montpelier, 
Orange co., Va., 28 June, 1836. His earliest paternal ancestor 
in Virginia seems to have been John Madison, who, in 1653, 
took out a patent for land between the North and York rivers 
on Chesapeake bay. There was a Capt. Isaac Madison in Vir- 
ginia in i623-'5,but his relationship to John Madison is matter 
of doubt. John's son, named also John, was father of Ambrose 
Madison, who married, 24 Aug., 1721, Frances, daughter of 
James Taylor, of Orange county, Va. Frances had four 
brothers, one of whom, Zachary, was grandfather of Zachary 
Taylor, twelfth president of the United States. The eldest 
child of Ambrose and Frances was James Madison, born 27 
March, 1723, who married, 15 Sept., 1749, Nelly Conway, of 
Port Conway. The eldest child of James and Nelly was 
James, the subject of this article, who was the first of twelve 
children. His ancestors, as he says himself in a note furnished 
to Dr. Lyman C. Draper in 1834, "were not among the most 
wealthy of the country, but in independent and comfortable 
circumstances." James's education was begun at an excellent 
school kept by a Scotchman named Donald Robertson, and his 
studies, preparatory for college, were completed at home under 
the care of the Rev. Thomas Martin, clergyman of the parish. 
He was graduated at Princeton in 1772, and remained there 
another year, devoting himself to the study of Hebrew. On 
returning home, he occupied himself with history, law, and 
theology, while teaching his brothers and sisters. Of the de- 
tails of his youthful studies little is known, but his industry 
must have been very great ; for, in spite of the early age at 
which he became absorbed in the duties of public life, the 
range and solidity of his acquirements were extraordinary. 
For minute and thorough knowledge of ancient and modern 




A^dyC^^"^^ ^^^ iU^^^^'^-^ ^'^^ 



D.Applet.o-n. & Co 



JAMES MADISON. 3g 

history and of constitutional law he was unequalled among 
the Americans of the Revolutionary period; only Hamilton, 
and perhaps Ellsworth and Marshall, approached him in this 
regard. For precocity of mental development he resembled 
Hamilton and the younger Pitt, and, like Washington, he was 
distinguished in youth for soundness of judgment, keenness 
of perception, and rare capacity for work. Along with these 
admirable qualities, his lofty integrity and his warm interest 
in public affairs were well known to the people of Orange, so 
that when, in the autumn of 1774, it was thought necessary 
to appoint a committee of safety, Madison nvas its youngest 
member. Early in 1776 he was chosen a delegate to the State 
convention, which met at Williamsburg in May. The first 
business of the convention was to instruct the Virginia delega- 
tion in the Contuiental congress with regard to an immediate 
declaration of independence. Next came the work of making 
a constitution for the state, and Madison was one of the spe- 
cial committee appointed to deal with this problem. Here one 
of his first acts was highly characteristic. Religious liberty 
was a matter that strongly enlisted his feelings. When it was 
proposed that, under the new constitution, "all men should 
enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise of religion, accord- 
ing to the dictates of conscience," Madison pointed out that 
this provision did not go to the root of the matter. The free 
exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience, is 
something which every man may demand as a right, not some- 
thing for which he must ask as a privilege. To grant to the 
state the power of tolerating is implicitly to grant to it the 
power of prohibiting, whereas Madison would deny to it any 
jurisdiction whatever in the matter of religion. The clause in 
the bill of rights, as finally adopted at his suggestion, accord- 
ingly declares that "all men are equally entitled to the free 
exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience." 
The incident illustrates not only Madison's liberality of spirit, 
but also his precision and forethought in so drawing up an in- 
strument as to make it mean all that it was intended to mean. 
In his later career these qualities were especially brilliant and 
useful. Madison was elected a member of the first legislature 
under the new state constitution, but he failed of re-election 
because he refused to solicit votes or to furnish whiskey for 
thirsty voters. The new legislature then elected him a mem- 



90 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



ber of the governor's council, and in 1780 he was sent as dele- 
gate to the Continental congress. The high consideration in 
which he was held showed itself in the number of important 
committees to which he was appointed. As chairman of a 
committee for drawing up instructions for John Jay, then 
minister at the court of Madrid, he insisted that, in making a 
treaty with Spain, our right to the free navigation of the Mis- 
sissippi river should on no account be surrendered. Mr. Jay 
was instructed accordingly, but toward the end of 1780 the 
pressure of the war upon the southern states increased the 
desire for an alliance with Spain to such a point that they 
seemed ready to purchase it at any price. Virginia, therefore, 
proposed that the surrender of our rights upon the Mississippi 
should be offered to Spain as the condition of an offensive and 
defensive alliance. Such a proposal was no doubt ill-advised. 
Since Spain was already, on her own account and to the best 
of her ability, waging war upon Great Britain in the West 
Indies and Florida, to say nothing of Gibraltar, it is doubtful if 
she could have done much more for the United States, even if 
we had offered her the whole Mississippi valley. The offer of 
a permanent and invaluable right in exchange for a temporary 
and questionable advantage seemed to Mr. Madison very un- 
wise; but as it was then generally held that in such matters 
representatives must be bound by the wishes of their constitu- 
ents, he yielded, though under protest. But hardly had the 
fresh instructions been despatched to Mr. Jay when the over- 
throw of Cornwallis again turned the scale, and Spain was 
informed that, as concerned the Mississippi question, congress 
was immovable. The foresight and sound judgment shown by 
Mr. Madison in this discussion added much to his reputation. 

His next prominent action related to the impost law pro- 
posed in 1783. This was, in some respects, the most important 
question of the day. The chief source of the weakness of the 
United States during the Revolutionary war had been the 
impossibility of raising money by means of Federal taxation. 
As long as money could be raised only through requisitions 
upon the state governments, and the different states could not 
be brought to agree upon any method of enforcing the requisi- 
tions, the state governments were sure to prove delinquent. 
Finding it impossible to obtain money for carrying on the war, 
congress had resorted to the issue of large quantities of incon- 



JAMES MADISON. qI 

vertible paper, with the natural results. There had been a 
rapid inflation of values, followed by sudden bankruptcy and 
the prostration of national credit. In 1783 it had become diffi- 
cult to obtain foreign loans, and at home the government could 
not raise nearly enough money to defray its current expenses. 
To remedy the evil a tariff of five per cent, upon sundry im- 
ports, with a specific duty upon others, was proposed in con- 
gress and offered to the several states for approval. To weaken 
as much as possible the objections to such a law, its operation 
was limited to twenty-five years. Even in this mild form, 
however, it was impossible to persuade the several states to 
submit to Federal taxation. Virginia at first assented to the 
impost law, but afterward revoked her action. On this occa- 
sion Mr. Madison, feeling that the very existence of the nation 
was at stake, refused to be controlled by the action of his con- 
stituents. He persisted in urging the necessity of such an 
impost law, and eventually had the satisfaction of seeing Vir- 
ginia adopt his view of the matter. 

The discussion of the impost law in congress revealed the 
antagonism that existed between the slave-states and those 
states which had emancipated their slaves. In endeavoring to 
apportion equitably the quotas of revenue to be required of the 
several states, it was observed that, if taxation were to be dis- 
tributed according to population, it made a great difference 
whether or not slaves were to be counted as population. If 
slaves were to be counted, the southern states would have 
to pay more than their equitable share into the treasury of 
the general government; if slaves were not to be counted, it 
was argued at the north that they would be paying less than 
their equitable share. Consequently at that time the northern 
states were inclined to maintain that the slaves were popula- 
tion, while the south preferred to regard them as chattels. 
The question was settled by a compromise that was proposed 
by Mr. Madison ; according to this arrangement the slaves were 
rated as population, but in such wise that five of them were 
counted as three persons. 

In 1784 Mr. Madison was again elected to the Virginia legis- 
lature, an office then scarcely inferior in dignity, and superior 
in influence, to that of delegate to the Continental congress. 
His efforts were steadfastly devoted to the preparation and 
advocacy of measures that were calculated to increase the 



Q2 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

Strength of the Federal government. He supported the pro- 
posed amendment to the articles of confederation, giving to 
congress control over the foreign trade of the states; and, 
pending the adoption of such a measure, he secured in that 
body the passage of a port bill restricting the entry of foreign 
ships to certain specified ports. The purpose of this was to 
facilitate the collection of revenue, but it was partially de- 
feated in its operation by successive amendments increasing 
the number of ports. While the weakness of the general gov- 
ernment and the need for strengthening it were daily growing 
more apparent, the question of religious liberty was the subject 
of earnest discussion in the Virginia legislature. An attempt 
was made to lay a tax upon all the people of that state " for the 
support of teachers of the Christian religion." At first Madi- 
son was almost the only one to see clearly the serious danger 
lurking in such a tax; that it would be likely to erect a state 
church and curtail men's freedom of belief and worship. Mr. 
Madison's position here well illustrated the remark that intelli- 
gent persistence is capable of making one person a majority. 
His energetic opposition resulted at first in postponing the 
measure. Then he wrote a " Memorial and Remonstrance," 
setting forth its dangerous character with wond-erful clearness 
and cogency. He sent this paper all over the state for signa- 
tures, and in the course of a twelvemonth had so educated the 
people that, in the election of 1785, the question of religious 
freedom was made a test question, and in the ensuing session 
the dangerous bill was defeated, and in place thereof it was 
enacted " that no man shall be compelled to frequent or sup- 
port any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor 
shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his 
body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his 
religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to 
profess and, by argument, maintain their opinions in matters 
of religion, and that the same shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, 
or affect their civil capacities." In thus abolishing religious 
tests Virginia came to the front among all the American states, 
as Massachusetts had come to the front in the abolition of 
negro slavery. Nearly all the states still imposed religious 
tests upon civil office-holders, from simply declaring a general 
belief in the infallibleness of the Bible, to accepting the doc- 
trine of the Trinity. Madison's " Religious Freedom Act " was 



JAMES MADISON. q3 

translated into French and Italian, and was widely read and 
commented upon in Europe. In our own history it set a most 
valuable precedent for other states to follow. 

The attitude of Mr. Madison with regard to paper money 
was also very important. The several states had then the 
power of issuing promissory notes and making them a legal 
tender, and many of them shamefully abused this power. The 
year 1786 witnessed perhaps the most virulent craze for paper 
money that has ever attacked the American people. In Vir- 
ginia the masterly reasoning and the resolute attitude of a 
few great political leaders saved the state from yielding to the 
delusion, and among these leaders Mr. Madison was foremost. 
But his most important work in the Virginia legislature was 
that which led directly to the Annapolis convention, and thus 
ultimately to the framing of the constitution of the United 
States. The source from which such vast results were to flow 
was the necessity of an agreement between Maryland and Vir- 
ginia with regard to the navigation of the Potomac river, and 
the collection of duties at ports on its banks. Commissioners 
appointed by the two states to discuss this question, met early 
in 1785 and recommended that a uniform tariff should be 
adopted and enforced upon both banks. But a further ques- 
tion, also closely connected with the navigation of the Poto- 
mac, now came up for discussion. The tide of westward migra- 
tion had for some time been pouring over the AUeghanies, and, 
owing to complications with the Spanish power in the Mis- 
sissippi valley, there was some danger that the United States 
might not be able to keep its hold upon the new settlements. 
It was necessary to strengthen the commercial ties between 
east and west, and to this end the Potomac company was 
formed for the purpose of improving the navigation of the 
upper waters of the Potomac and connecting them by good 
roads and canals with the upper waters of the Ohio at Pittsburg 
— an enterprise which, in due course of time, resulted in the 
Chesapeake and Ohio canal. 

The first president of the Potomac company was George 
Washington, who well understood that the undertaking was 
quite as important in its political as in its commercial bearings. 
At the same time it was proposed to connect the Potomac and 
Delaware rivers with a canal, and a company was organized 
for this purpose. This made it desirable that the four states — 



94 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania — should agree 
upon the laws for regulating interstate traffic through this sys- 
tem of water-ways. But from this it was but a short step to the 
conclusion that, since the whole commercial system of the 
United States confessedly needed overhauling, it might per- 
haps be as well for all the thirteen states to hold a convention 
for considering the matter. When such a suggestion was com- 
municated from the legislature of Maryland to that of Virginia, 
it afforded Mr. Madison the opportunity for which he had 
been eagerly waiting. Some time before he had prepared a 
resolution for the appointment of commissioners to confer with 
commissioners from the other states concerning the trade of 
the country and the advisableness of intrusting its regulation 
to the Federal government. This resolution Mr. Madison left 
to be offered to the assembly by some one less conspicuously 
identified with federalist opinions than himself ; and it was 
accordingly presented by Mr. Tyler, father of the future presi- 
dent of that name. The motion was unfavorably received and 
was laid upon the table, but when the message came from 
Maryland the matter was reconsidered and the resolution 
passed. Annapolis was selected as the place for the conven- 
tion, which assembled on ii Sept., 1786. Only five states — 
Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York 
— were represented at the meeting. Maryland, which had first 
suggested the convention, had seen the appointed time arrive 
without even taking the trouble to select commissioners. As 
the representation was so inadequate, the convention thought 
it best to defer action, and accordingly adjourned after adopt- 
ing an address to the states, which was prepared by Alexander 
Hamilton. The address incorporated a suggestion from New 
Jersey, which indefinitely enlarged the business to be treated 
by such a convention ; it was to deal not only with the regu- 
lation of commerce, but with " other important matters." 
Acting upon this cautious hint, the address recommended the 
calling of a second convention, to be held at Philadelphia on 
the second Monday of May, 1787. Mr. Madison was one of 
the commissioners at Annapolis, and was very soon appointed 
a delegate to the new convention, along with Washington, 
Randolph, Mason, and others. The avowed purpose of the 
new convention was to " devise such provisions as shall appear 
necessary to render the constitution of the Federal govern- 



JAMES MADISON. 05 

merit adequate to the exigencies of the Union, and to report 
to congress such an act as, when agreed to by them and con- 
firmed by the legislatures of every state, would effectually pro- 
vide for the same." The report of the Annapolis commissioners 
was brought before congress in October, in the hope that con- 
gress would earnestly recommend to the several states the 
course of action therein suggested. At first the objections to 
the plan prevailed in congress, but the events of the winter 
went far toward persuading men in all parts of the country 
that the only hope of escaping anarchy lay in a thorough re- 
vision of the imperfect scheme of government under which we 
were then living. The paper-money craze m so many of the 
states, the violent proceedings in the Rhode Island legislature, 
the riots in Vermont and New Hampshire, the Shays rebellion 
in Massachusetts, the dispute with Spain about the navigation 
of the Mississippi, and the consequent imminent danger of 
separation between north and south, had all come together; 
and now the last ounce was laid upon the camel's back in the 
failure of the impost amendment. In February, 1787, just as 
Mr. Madison, who had been chosen a delegate to congress, 
arrived in New York, the legislature of that state refused its 
assent to the amendment, which was thus defeated. Thus, 
only three months before the time designated for the meeting 
of the Philadelphia convention, congress was decisively in- 
formed that it would not be allowed to take any effectual 
measures for raising a revenue. This accumulation of diffi- 
culties made congress more ready to listen to the arguments of 
Mr. Madison, and presently congress itself proposed a conven- 
tion at Philadelphia identical with the one recommended by 
the Annapolis commissioners, and thus in its own way sanc- 
tioned their action. 

The assembling of the convention at Philadelphia was an 
event to which Mr. Madison, by persistent energy and skill, 
had contributed more than any other man in the country, with 
the possible exception of Alexander Hamilton. For the noble 
political structure reared by the convention, it was Madison 
that furnished the basis. Before the convention met he laid 
before his colleagues of the Virginia delegation the outlines of 
the scheme that was presented to the convention as the " Vir- 
ginia plan." Of the delegates, Edmund Randolph was then 
governor of Virginia, and it was he that presented the plan, 



96 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

and made the opening speech in defence of it, but its chief 
author was Madison. This " Virginia plan " struck directly at 
the root of the evils from which our Federal government had 
suffered under the articles of confederation. The weakness of 
that government had consisted in the fact that it operated 
only upon states and not upon individuals. Only states, not 
individuals, were represented in the Continental congress, which 
accordingly resembled a European congress rather than an 
English parliament. The delegates to the Continental con- 
gress were more like envoys from sovereign states than like 
members of a legislative body. They might deliberate and 
advise, but had no means of enforcing their will upon the 
several state governments; and hence they could neither raise 
a revenue nor preserve order. In forming the new govern- 
ment, this fundamental difficulty was met first by the creation 
of a legislative body representing population instead of states, 
and secondly by the creation of a Federal executive and a 
Federal judiciary. Thus arose that peculiar state of things so 
familiar to Americans, but so strange to Europeans that they 
find it hard to comprehend it : the state of things in which 
every individual lives under two complete and well-rounded 
systems of laws — the state law and the Federal law — each with 
its legislature, its executive, and its judiciary, moving one 
within the other. It was one of the longest reaches of con- 
structive statesmanship ever known in the world, and the 
credit of it is due to Madison more than to any other one man. 
To him we chiefly owe the luminous conception of the two co- 
existing and harmonious spheres of government, although the 
constitution, as actually framed, was the result of skilful com- 
promises by which the Virginia plan was modified and improved 
in many important points. In its original shape that plan 
went further toward national consolidation than the constitu- 
tion as adopted. It contemplated a national legislature to be 
composed of two houses, but both the upper and the lower 
house were to represent population instead of states. Here it 
encountered fierce opposition from the smaller states, under 
the lead of New Jersey, until the matter was settled by the 
famous Connecticut compromise, according to which the upper 
house was to represent states, while the lower house repre- 
sented population. Madison's original scheme, moreover, 
would have allowed the national legislature to set aside at dis- 



JAMES MADISON. gy 

cretion such state laws as it might deem unconstitutional. It 
seems strange to find Madison, who afterward drafted the Vir- 
ginia resolutions of 1798, now suggesting and defending a pro- 
vision so destructive of state rights. It shows how strongly he 
was influenced at the time by the desire to put an end to the pre- 
vailing anarchy. The discussion of this matter in the conven- 
tion, as we read it to-day, brings out in a very strong light the 
excellence of the arrangement finally adopted, by which the 
constitutionality of state laws is left to be determined through 
the decisions of the Federal supreme court. 

In all the discussions in the Federal convention Mr. Madi- 
son naturally took a leading part. Besides the work of cardi- 
nal importance which he achieved as principal author of the 
Virginia plan, especial mention must be made of the famous 
compromise that adjusted the distribution of representatives 
between the northern and the southern states. We have seen 
that in the congress of 1783, when it was a question of taxa- 
tion, the south was inclined to regard slaves as chattels, while 
the north preferred to regard them as population. Now, when 
it had come to be a question of the apportionment of repre- 
sentation, the case was reversed : it was the south that wished 
to count slaves as population, while the north insisted that 
they should be classed as chattels. Here Mr. Madison pro- 
posed the same compromise that had succeeded in congress 
four years before; and Mr. Rutledge, of South Carolina, who 
had supported him on the former occasion, could hardly do 
otherwise than come again to his side. It was agreed that in 
counting population, whether for direct taxation or for repre- 
sentation in the lower house of congress, five slaves should be 
reckoned as three individuals. In the history of the formation 
of our Federal Union this compromise was of cardinal im- 
portance. Without it the Union would undoubtedly have 
gone to pieces at the outset, and it was for this reason that the 
northern abolitionists, Gouverneur Morris and Rufus King, 
joined with Washington and Madison and with the pro-slavery 
Pinckneys in subscribing to it. Some of the evils resulting 
from this compromise have led historians, writing from the 
abolitionist point of view, to condemn it utterly. Nothing can 
be clearer, however, than that, in order to secure the adoption 
of the constitution, it was absolutely necessary to satisfy South 
Carolina. This was proved by the course of events in 1788, 



98 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



when there was a strong party in Virginia in favor of a sepa- 
rate confederacy of southern states. By South CaroHna's 
prompt ratification of the constitution this scheme was com- 
pletely defeated, and a most formidable obstacle to the forma- 
tion of a more perfect union was removed. Of all the com- 
promises in American history, this of the so-called " three-fifths 
rule " was probably the most important : until the beginning 
of the civil war there was hardly a political movement of any 
consequence not affected by it. 

Mr. Madison's services in connection with the founding of 
our Federal government were thus, up to this point, of the 
most transcendent kind. We have seen that he played a lead- 
ing part in the difficult work of getting a convention to assem- 
ble ; the merit of this he shares with other eminent men, and 
notably with Washington and Hamilton. Then, he was chief 
author of the most fundamental features in the constitution, 
those which transformed our government from a loose con- 
federacy of states into a Federal nation ; and to him is due the 
principal credit for the compromise that made the adoption of 
the constitution possible for all the states. 
^ i.^. After the adjournment of the convention 

^t/ . -S. his services did not cease. Among those 

V y^CTT^jl whose influence in bringing about the 

ratification of the constitution was felt 
all over the country, he shares with Ham- 
ilton the foremost place. The " Feder- 
alist," their joint production, is probably 
the greatest treatise on political science 
that has ever appeared in the world, at 
once the most practical and the most 
profound. The evenness with which the 
merits of this work are shared between 
Madison and Hamilton is well illustrated 
by the fact that it is not always easy to distinguish between 
the two, so that there has been considerable controversy as 
to the number of papers contributed by each. According to 
Madison's own memorandum, he was the author of twenty- 
nine of the papers, while fifty-one were written by Hamil- 
ton, and five by Jay. The question is not of great im- 
portance. Very probably Mr. Madison would have had a 
larger share in the work had he not been obliged, in March, 




^<x\t\*] M.ud\.Jt,*\ 



JAMES MADISON. g^ 

1788, to return to Virginia, in order to take part in the State 
convention for deciding upon the ratification of the con- 
stitution. The opposition in Virginia was strong and well 
organized, and had for leaders such eminent patriots as 
Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee. The debates in 
the convention lasted nearly a month, and for a considera- 
ble part of this time the outlook was not promising. The 
discussion was conducted mainly between Madison and Henry, 
the former being chiefly assisted by Marshall, Wythe, Randolph, 
Pendleton, and Henry Lee, the latter by Mason, Monroe, 
Harrison, and Tyler. To Mr. Madison, more than to any one 
else, it was due that the constitution w^as at length ratified, 
while the narrowness of the majority — 89 to 79 — bore witness 
to the severity of the contest. It did not appear that the peo- 
ple of Virginia were even yet convinced by the arguments that 
had prevailed in the convention. The assernbly that met in 
the following October showed a heavy majority of anti-Feder- 
alists, and under Henry's leadership it called upon congress 
for a second National convention to reconsider the work done 
by the first. Senators were now to be chosen for the first 
U. S. senate, and Henry, in naming Richard Henry Lee and 
William Grayson, both anti-Federalists, as the two men who 
ought to be chosen, took pains to mention James Madison as 
the one man who on no account whatever ought to be elected 
senator. Henry was successful in carrying this point. The 
next thing was to keep Mr. Madison out of congress, and 
Henry's friends sought to accomplish this by means of the de- 
vice afterward known as "gerrymandering"; but the attempt 
failed, and Madison was elected to the first national house of 
representatives. His great knowledge, and the part he had 
played in building up the framework of the government, made 
him from the outset the leading member of the house. His 
first motion was one for raising a revenue by tariff and tonnage 
duties. He offered the resolutions for creating the executive 
departments of foreign affairs, of the treasury, and of war. He 
proposed twelve amendments to the constitution, in order to 
meet the objection, urged in many quarters, that that instru- 
ment did not contain a bill of rights. The first ten of these 
amendments were adopted and became part of the constitution 
in the year 1791. 

The first division of political parties under the constitution 



lOO LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

began to show itself in the debates upon Hamilton's financial 
measures as secretary of the treasury, and in this division we 
see Madison acting as leader of the opposition. By many 
writers this has been regarded as indicating a radical change 
of attitude on his part, and sundry explanations have been 
offered to account for the presumed inconsistency. He has 
been supposed to have succumbed to the personal influence of 
Jefferson, and to have yielded his own convictions to the de- 
sires and prejudices of his constituents. Such explanations are 
hardly borne out by what we know of Mr. Madison's career up 
to this point; and, moreover, they are uncalled for. If we con- 
sider carefully the circumstances of the time, the presumed in- 
consistency in his conduct disappears. The new Republican 
party, of which he soon became one of the leaders, was some- 
thing quite different in its attitude from the anti-Federalist 
party of lySy-'po. There was ample room in it for men who 
in these critical years had been stanch Federalists, and as time 
passed this came to be more and more the case, until after a 
quarter of a century the entire Federalist party, with the ex- 
ception of a few inflexible men in New England, had been ab- 
sorbed by the Republican party. In 1790, since the Federal 
constitution had been actually adopted, and was going into 
operation, and since the extent of power that it granted to the 
general government must be gradually tested by the discussion 
of specific measures, it followed that the only natural and 
healthful division of parties must be the division between strict 
and loose constructionists. It was to be expected that anti- 
Federalists would become strict constructionists, and so most 
of them did, though examples were not wanting of such men 
swinging to the opposite extreme of politics, and advocating an 
extension of the powers of the Federal government. But there 
was no reason in the world why a Federalist of lySy-'go must 
thereafter, in order to preserve his consistency, become a loose 
constructionist. It was entirely consistent for a statesman to 
advocate the adoption of the constitution, while convinced that 
the powers specifically granted therein to the general govern- 
ment were ample, and that great care should be taken not to 
add indefinitely to such powers through rash and loose methods 
of interpretation. Not only is such an attitude perfectly rea- 
sonable in itself, but it is, in particular, the one that a principal 
author of the constitution would have been very likely to take ; 



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JAMES MADISON. lOi 

and no doubt it was just this attitude that Mr. Madison took 
in the early sessions of congress. The occasions on which he 
assumed it were, moreover, eminently proper, and afford an ad- 
mirable illustration of the difference in temper and mental 
habit between himself and Hamilton. The latter had always 
more faith in the heroic treatment of political questions than 
Madison. The restoration of American credit in 1790 was a 
task that demanded heroic measures, and it was fortunate that 
we had such a man as Hamilton to undertake it. But undoubt- 
edly the assumption of state debts by the Federal government, 
however admirably it met the emergency of the moment, was 
such a measure as might easily create a dangerous precedent, 
and there was certainly nothing strange or inconsistent in Mad- 
ison's opposition to it. A similar explanation will cover his 
opposition to Hamilton's national bank; and indeed, with the 
considerations here given as a clew, there is little or nothing in 
Mr. Madison's career in congress that is not thoroughly intelli- 
gible. At the time, however, the Federalists, disappointed at 
losing a man of so much power, misunderstood his acts and 
misrepresented his motives, and the old friendship between him 
and Hamilton gave way to mutual distrust and dislike. Mr. 
Madison sympathized with the French revolutionists, though 
he did not go so far in this direction as Jefferson. In the de- 
bates upon Jay's treaty with Great Britain he led the opposi- 
tion, and supported the resolution asking President Washing- 
ton to submit to the house of representatives copies of the 
papers relating to the negotiation. The resolution was passed, 
but Washington refused on the ground that the making of trea- 
ties was intrusted by the constitution to the president and the 
senate, and that the lower house was not entitled to meddle 
with their work. 

At the close of Washington's second administration Mr. 
Madison retired for a brief season from public life. During 
this difficult period the country had been fortunate in having, 
as leader of the opposition in congress, a man so wise in coun- 
sel, so temperate in spirit, and so courteous in demeanor. What- 
ever else might be said of Madison's conduct in opposition, it 
could never be called factious; it was calm, generous, and dis- 
interested. About two years before the close of his career in 
congress he married Mrs. Dolly Payne Todd, a beautiful widow, 
much younger than himself; and about this time he seems to 



I02 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 




have built the house at Montpelier, which was to be his home 
during his later years. But retirement from public life, in any 
real sense of the phrase, was not yet possible for such a man. 
The wrath of the French government over Jay's treaty led to 
depredations upon American shipping, to the sending of com- 
missioners to Paris, and to the blackmailing attempts of Tal- 
leyrand, as shown 
up in the X. Y. Z. 
despatches. In the 
fierce outbursts of 
indignation that in 
America greeted 
these disclosures, in 
the sudden desire for 
war with France, 
which went so far as 
to vent itself in ac- 
tual fighting on the sea, though war was never declared, the 
Federalist party believed itself to be so strong that it proceeded 
at once to make one of the greatest blunders ever made by a 
political party, in passing the alien and sedition acts. This high- 
handed legislation caused a sudden revulsion of feeling in favor 
of the Republicans, and called forth vigorous remonstrance. 
Party feeling has, perhaps, never in this country been so bitter, 
except just before the civil war. A series of resolutions, drawn 
up by Mr. Madison, was adopted in 1798 by the legislature of 
Virginia, while a similar series, still more pronounced, drawn up 
by Mr. Jefferson, was adopted in the same year by the legisla- 
ture of Kentucky. The Virginia resolutions asserted with truth 
that, in adopting the Federal constitution, the states had sur- 
rendered only a limited portion of their powers ; and went on to 
declare that, whenever the Federal government should exceed its 
constitutional authority, it was the business of the state govern- 
ments to interfere and pronounce such action unconstitutional. 
Accordingly, Virginia declared the alien and sedition laws un- 
constitutional, and invited the other states to join in the decla- 
ration. Not meeting with a favorable response, Virginia re- 
newed these resolutions the next year. There was nothing 
necessarily seditious, or tending toward secession, in the Vir- 
ginia resolutions; but the attitude assumed in them was un- 
called for on the part of any state, inasmuch as there existed, 



JAMES MADISON. I03 

in the Federal supreme court, a tribunal competent to decide 
upon the constitutionality of acts of congress. The Kentucky- 
resolutions went further. They declared that our Federal con- 
stitution was a compact, to which the several states were the 
one party and the Federal government was the other, and each 
party must decide for itself as to when the compact was in- 
fringed, and as to the proper remedy to be adopted. When the 
resolutions were repeated in 1799, a clause was added, which 
went still further and mentioned " nullification " as the suitable 
remedy, and one that any state might employ. In the Virginia 
resolutions there was neither mention nor intention of nullifi- 
cation as a remedy. Mr. Madison lived to witness South Caro- 
lina's attempt at nullification in 1832, and in a very able paper, 
written in the last year of his life, he conclusively refuted the idea 
that his resolutions of 1798 afforded any justification for such 
an attempt, and showed that what they really contemplated was 
a protest on the part of all the state governments in common. 
Doubtless such a remedy was clumsy and impracticable, and the 
suggestion of it does not deserve to be ranked along with Mr. 
Madison's best work in constructive statesmanship ; but it cer- 
tainly contained no logical basis for what its author unsparingly 
denounced as the '* twin heresies " of nullification and secession. 
In 1799 Mr. Madison was again elected a member of the 
Virginia assembly, and in 1801, at Mr. Jefferson's urgent de- 
sire, he became secretary of state. In accepting this appoint- 
ment, he entered upon a new career, in many respects different 
from that which he had hitherto followed. His work as a con- 
structive statesman, which was so great as to place him in the 
foremost rank among the men that have built up nations, was 
by this time substantially completed. During the next few years 
the constitutional questions that had hitherto occupied him 
played a part subordinate to that played by questions of foreign 
policy, and in this new sphere Mr. Madison was not, by nature 
or training, fitted to exercise such a controlling influence as he 
had formerly brought to bear in the framing of our Federal 
government. As secretary of state, he was an able lieutenant 
to Mr. Jefferson, but his genius was not that of an executive 
officer so much as that of a law-giver. He brought his great 
historical and legal learning to bear in a paper entitled " An 
Examination of the British Doctrine which subjects to Capture 
a Neutral Trade not open in the Time of Peace." But the 



I04 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



troubled period that followed the rupture of the treaty of 
Amiens was not one in which legal arguments, however mas- 
terly, counted for much in bringmg angry and insolent com- 
batants to terms. In the gigantic struggle between England 
and Napoleon the commerce of the United States was ground 
to pieces as between the upper and the nether millstone, and in 
some respects there is no chapter in American history more 
painful for an American citizen to read. The outrageous affair 
of the " Leopard " and the " Chesapeake " was but the most fla- 
grant of a series of wrongs and insults, against which Jeffer- 
son's embargo was doubtless an absurd and feeble protest, but 
perhaps at the same time pardonable as the only weapon left 
us in that period of national weakness. 

Affairs were drawing slowly toward some kind of crisis 
when, at the expiration of Jefferson's second term, Mr. Madi- 
son was elected president of the United States by 122 electoral 
votes against 47 for Cotesworth Pinckney, and 6 for George 
Clinton, who received 113 votes for the vice-presidency, and was 
elected to that ofifice. The opposition of the New England 
states to the embargo had by this time brought about its repeal, 
and the substitution for it of the act declaring non-intercourse 
with England and France. By this time many of the most in- 
telligent Federalists, including John Quincy Adams, had gone 
over to the Republicans. In 1810 congress repealed the non- 
intercourse act, which, as a measure of intimidation, had proved 
ineffectual. Congress now sought to use the threat of non-in- 
tercourse as a kind of bribe, and informed England and France 
that if either nation would repeal its obnoxious edicts, the non- 
intercourse act would be revived against the other. Napoleon 
took prompt advantage of this, and informed Mr. Madison's 
government that he had revoked his Berlin and Milan decrees 
as far as American ships were concerned ; but at the same time 
he gave secret orders by which the decrees were to be practi- 
cally enforced as harshly as ever. The lie served its purpose, 
and congress revived the non-intercourse act as against Great 
Britain alone. In 181 1 hostilities began on sea and land, in 
the affair of Tippecanoe and of the " President " and " Little 
Belt." The growing desire for war was shown in the choice of 
Henry Clay for speaker of the house of representatives, and 
Mr. Madison was nominated for a second term, on condition of 
adopting the war policy. On 18 June, 181 2, war was declared, 



JAMES MADISON. I05 

and before the autumn election a series of remarkable naval 
victories had made it popular. Mr. Madison was re-elected by 
128 electoral votes against 89 for DeWitt Clinton, of New York. 
The one absorbing event, which filled the greater part of his 
second term, was the war with Great Britain, which was marked 
by some brilliant victories and some grave disasters, including 
the capture of Washington by British troops, and the flight of 
the government from the national capital. Whatever opinjon 
may be held as to the character of the war and its results, there 
is a general agreement that its management, on the part of the 
United States, was feeble. Mr. Madison was essentially a man 
of peace, and as the manager of a great war he was conspicu- 
ously out of his element. The history of that war plays a great 
part in the biographies of the military and naval heroes that 
figured in it ; it is a cardinal event in the career of Andrew 
Jackson or Isaac Hull. In the biography of Madison it is an 
episode which may be passed over briefly. The greatest part 
of his career was finished before he held the highest offices ; his 
renown will rest chiefly or entirely upon what he did before the 
beginning of the 19th century. 

After the close of his second term in 1817, Mr. Madison re- 
tired to his estate at Montpelier, where he spent nearly twenty 
happy years with books and friends. This sweet and tranquil 
old age he had well earned by services to his fellow-creatures 
such as it is given to but few men to render. Among the found- 
ers of our nation, his place is beside that of Washington, Ham- 
ilton, Jefferson, and Marshall ; but his part was peculiar. He 
was pre-eminently the scholar, the profound, constructive think- 
er, and his limitations, were such as belong to that character. He 
was modest, quiet, and reserved in manner, small in stature, 
neat and refined, courteous and amiable. In rough party strife 
there were many who could for the moment outshine him. He 
was not the sort of hero for whom people throw up their caps 
and shout themselves hoarse, like Andrew Jackson, for example; 
but his work was of a kind that will be powerful for good in 
the world long after the work of the men of Jackson's type 
shall have been forgotten. The portrait on steel is from a 
painting by Gilbert Stuart, and the vignette is copied from a 
drawing by Longacre made at Montpelier in July, 1833, when 
Mr. Madison was in his eighty-third year. The view on page 
102 represents his residence. 



io6 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



A satisfactory biography of Madison and a complete edition 
of his writings are things still to be desired. His interesting 
account of the Federal convention is published in Elliot's " De- 
bates on the State Conventions" (4 vols., 8vo., Philadelphia, 
ig6i). See also the " Madison Papers" (3 vols., Washington, 
1840), and the " History of the United States by Henry Adams. 
Vols. V to IX, Madison's Administration, 1809-1817 " (New 
York, 1890, 1891). For biographies there is the cumbrous 
work of William C. Rives (3 vols., Boston, i859-'68) and the 
sketch by Sydney Howard Gay in the " American Statesmen " 
series (Boston, 1884). 



His wife, Dorothy Payne, born in North Carolina, 20 May, 
1772; died in Washington, D. C, 12 July, 1849, was a grand- 
daughter of John Payne, an English gentleman who migrated 
to Virginia early in the i8th century. 
He married Anna Fleming, granddaugh- 
ter of Sir Thomas Fleming, one of the 
early settlers of Jamestown. His son, 
the second John Payne, Dorothy's fa- 
ther, married Mary Coles, first cousin to 
Patrick Henry. Dorothy was brought 
up as a Quaker, and at the age of nine- 
teen married John Todd, a Pennsyl- 
vania lawyer and member of the Soci- 
ety of Friends. Mr. Todd died in the 
dreadful yellow - fever pestilence at 
Philadelphia in 1793. Some time in 
1794 Mrs. Todd met Mr. Madison, and 
in September of that year they were married, to the delight 
of President Washington and his wife, who felt a keen interest 
in both. Their married life of forty-two years was one of un- 
clouded happiness. Mrs. Madison was a lady of extraordinary 
beauty and rare accomplishments. Her " Memoirs and Let- 
ters" (Boston, 1887) make a very interesting book. 




^.§^^^^^1.^971^-^ 





T) /LiDlF.f.nri H C, 



JAMES MONROE. 

James Monroe, fifth president of the United States, born 
in Westmoreland county, Va., 28 April, 1758 ; died in New York 
city, 4 July, 1831. Although the attempts to trace his pedigree 
have not been successful, it appears certain that the Monroe 
family came to Virginia as early as 1650, and that they were of 
Scottish origin. James Monroe's father was Spence Monroe, 
and his mother was Eliza, sister of Judge Joseph Jones, twice 
a delegate from Virginia to the Continental congress. The 
boyhood of the future president was passed in his native county, 
a neighborhood famous for early manifestations of patriotic 
fervor. His earliest recollections must have been associated 
with public remonstrances against the stamp-act (in 1766), and 
with the reception (in 1769) of a portrait of Lord Chatham, 
which was sent to the gentlemen of Westmoreland, from Lon- 
don, by one of their correspondents, Edmund Jennings, of Lin- 
coln's Inn. To the College of William and Mary, then rich 
and prosperous, James Monroe was sent; but soon after his 
student life began it was interrupted by the Revolutionary 
war. Three members of the faculty and twenty-five or thirty 
students, Monroe among them, entered the military service. 
He joined the army in 1776 at the headquarters of Washington 
in New York, as a lieutenant in the 3d Virginia regiment under 
Col. Hugh Mercer. He was with the troops at Harlem, at 
White Plains, and at Trenton, where, in leading the advance 
guard, he was wounded in the shoulder. During ijjj-'S he 
served as a volunteer aide, with the rank of major, on the staff 
of the Earl of Stirling, and took part in the battles of the 
Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. After these serv- 
ices he was commended by Washington for a commission in 
the state troops of Virginia, but without success. He formed 
the acquaintance of Gov. Jefferson, and was sent by him as a 



,08 Lll'ES OF THE PJfESIDEXTS. 

military commissioner to collect information in regard to the 
condition and prospects of the southern army. He thus at- 
tained the rank of lieutenant-colonel ; but his services in the 
field were completely interrupted, to his disappointment and 
chagrin. His uncle. Judge Jones, at all times a trusted and 
intimate counsellor, then wrote to him : " Vou do well to culti- 
vate the friendship of Mr. Jefferson . . . and while you con- 
tinue to deserve his esteem, he will not withdraw his counte- 
nance." The future proved the sagacity of this advice, for 
Monroe's intimacy with Jefferson, which was then established, 
continued through life, and was the key to his early advance- 
ment, and perhaps his ultimate success. The civil life of Mon- 
roe began on his election in 17S2 to a seat in the assembly of 
Virginia, and his appointment as a member of the executive 
council. He was next a delegate to the 4th. 5th, and 6th con- 
gresses of the confederation, where, notwithstanding his youth, 
he was active and influential. Bancroft says of him that when 
Jefferson embarked for France, Monroe remained " not the 
ablest but the most conspicuous representative of Virginia on 
the floor of congress. He sought the friendship of nearly 
everv leading statesman of his commonwealth, and every one 
seemed glad to call him a friend." On i March, 1784, the Vir- 
ginia delegates presented to congress a deed that ceded to 
the United States Virginia's claim to the northwest territory, 
and soon afterward Jefferson presented his memorable plan 
for the temporarv government of all the western possessions 
of the United States from the southern boundary (lat. 31° X.) 
to the Lake of the Woods. From that time until its settlement 
by the ordinance of 13 July. 1787. this question was of para- 
mount importance. Twice within a few months Monroe crossed 
the Alleghanies for the purpose of becoming acquainted with 
the actual condition of the country. One of the fruits of his 
western observations was a memoir, written in 1786. to prove 
the rights of the people of the west to the free navigation of 
the Mississippi. Toward the close of 1784 Monroe was selected 
as one of nine judges to decide the boundary dispute between 
Massachusetts and New Vork. He resigned this place in May, 
1786, in consequence of an acrimonious controversy in which 
he became involved. Both the states that were at difference 
with each other were at variance with Monroe in respect to 
the right to navigate the Mississippi, and he thought himself 



JAMES MONROE. IO9 

thus debarred from being acceptable as an umpire to either of 
the contending parties to whom he owed his appointment. 

In the congress of 1785 Monroe was interested in the regu- 
lation of commerce by the confederation, and he certainly de- 
sired to secure that result ; but he was also jealous of the rights 
of the southern states, and afraid that their interests would be 
overbalanced by those of the north. His policy was therefore 
timid and dilatory. A report upon the subject by the commit- 
tee, of which he was chairman, was presented to congress, 28 
March, 1785, and led to a long discussion, but nothing came of 
it. The weakness of the confederacy grew more and more 
obvious, and the country was drifting toward a stronger gov- 
ernment. But the measures proposed by Monroe were not en- 
tirely abortive. Says John Q. Adams: " They led first to the 
partial convention of delegates from five states at Annapolis in 
September, 1786, and then to the general convention at Phila- 
delphia in 1787, which prepared and proposed the constitution 
of the United States. Whoever contributed to that event is 
justly entitled to the gratitude of the present age as'a public 
benefactor, and among them the name of Monroe should be 
conspicuously enrolled." 

According to the principle of rotation then in force, Mon- 
roe's congressional service expired in 1786, at the end of a 
three years' term. He then intended to make his home in 
Fredericksburg, and to practise law, though he said he should 
be happy to keep clear of the bar if possible. But it was not 
long before he was again called into public life. He was 
chosen at once a delegate to the assembly, and soon afterward 
became a member of the Virginia convention to consider the 
ratification of the proposed constitution of the United States, 
which assembled at Richmond in 1788. In this convention the 
friends of the new constitution were led by James Madison, 
John Marshall, and Edmund Randolph. Patrick Henry was 
their chief opponent, and James Monroe was by his side, in 
company with William Grayson and George Mason. 

In one of his speeches, Monroe made an elaborate historical 
argument, based on the experience of Greece, Germany, Switzer- 
land, and New England, against too firm consolidation, and he 
predicted conflict between the state and national authorities, 
and the possibility that a president once elected might be 
elected for life. In another speech he endeavored to show 



1 lO 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



^ J. 



that the rights of the western territory would be less secure 
under the new constitution than they were under the confedera- 
tion. He finally assented to the ratification on condition that 
certain amendments should be adopted. As late as 1816 he 
recurred to the fears of a monarchy, which he had entertained in 
1788, and endeavored to show that they were not unreasonable. 
Under the new constitution the first choice of Virginia for sen- 
ators fell upon Richard Henry Lee and William Grayson. The 
latter died soon afterward, and Monroe was selected by the 
legislature to fill the vacant place. He took his seat in the 
senate, 6 Dec, 1790, and held the office until May, 1794, when 
he was sent as envoy to France. Among the Anti-Federalists 
he took a prominent stand, and was one of the most determined 
opponents of the administration of Washington. To Hamilton 
he was especially hostile. The appointment of Gouverneur 
Morris to be minister to France, and of John Jay to be minister 

to England, seemed to 
^ " him most objectiona- 

ble. Indeed, he met 
all the Federalist at- 
tempts to organize a 
strong and efficient 
government with in- 
credulity or with ad- 
verse criticism. It was 
therefore a great sur- 
prise to him, as well as 
to the public, that, while still a senator, he was designated the 
successor of Morris as minister to France. For this difficult 
place he was not the first choice of the president, nor the second ; 
but he was known to be favorably disposed toward the French 
government, and it was thought that he might lead to the es- 
tablishment of friendly relations with that power, and, besides, 
there is no room to doubt that Washington desired, as John 
Quincy Adams has said, to hold the balance between the par- 
ties at home by appointing Jay, the Federalist, to the English 
mission, and Monroe, the Republican, to the French mission. 
It was the intent of the United States to avoid a collision with 
any foreign power, but neutrality was in danger of being con- 
sidered an offence by either France or England at any moment. 
Monroe arrived in Paris just after the fall of Robespierre, and 




JAMES MONROE. HI 

in the excitement of the day he did not at once receive recog- 
nition from the committee of public safety. He therefore sent 
a letter to the president of the convention, and arrangements 
were made for his official reception, 15 Aug., 1794. At that 
time he addressed the convention in terms of great cordiality, 
but his enthusiasm led him beyond his discretion. He tran- 
scended the authority that had been given to him, and when his 
report reached the government at home Randolph sent him a 
despatch, "m the frankness of friendship," criticising severely 
the course that the plenipotentiary had pursued. A little later 
the secretary took a more conciliatory tone, and Monroe be- 
lieved he never would have spoken so severely if all the de- 
spatches from Paris had reached the United States in due 
order. The residence of Monroe in France was a period of 
anxious responsibility, during which he did not succeed in 
recovering the confidence of the authorities at home. When 
Pickering succeeded Randolph in the department of state, 
Monroe was informed that he was superseded by the appoint- 
ment of Charles C. Pinckney. The letter of recall was dated 
22 Aug., 1796. On his return he published a pamphlet of 500 
pages, entitled "A View of the Conduct of the Executive" 
(Philadelphia, 1797), in which he printed his instructions, cor- 
respondence with the French and United States governments, 
speeches, and letters received from American residents in Paris. 
This publication made a great stir. Washington, who had then 
retired from public life, appears to have remained quiet under 
the provocation, but he wrote upon his copy of the "View" 
animadversions that have since been published. Party feeling, 
already excited, became fiercer when Monroe's book appeared, 
and personalities that have now lost their force were freely 
uttered on both sides. Under these circumstances Monroe 
became the hero of the Anti-Federalists, and was at once 
elected governor of Virginia. He held the office from 1799 till 
1802. The most noteworthy occurrence during his administra- 
tion was the suppression of a servile insurrection by which the 
city of Richmond was threatened. Monroe's star continued in 
the ascendant. After Thomas Jefferson's election to the presi- 
dency in 1801, an opportunity occurred for returning Mr. Mon- 
roe to the French mission, from which he had been recalled a 
few years previously. There were many reasons for believing 
that the United States could secure possession of the territory 



112 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

beyond the Mississippi belonging to France. The American 
minister in Paris, Robert R. Livingston, had already opened 
the negotiations, and Monroe was sent as an additional pleni- 
potentiary to second, with his enthusiasm and energy, the effort 
that had been begun. By their joint efforts it came to pass that 
in the spring of 1803 a treaty was signed by which France gave 
up to the United States for a pecuniary consideration the vast 
region then known as Louisiana. Livingston remarked to the 
plenipotentiaries after the treaty was signed: "We have lived 
long, but this is the noblest work of our lives." The story of 
the negotiations that terminated in this sale is full of romance. 
Bonaparte, Talleyrand, and Marbois were the representatives 
of France; Jefferson, Livingston, and Monroe guided the in- 
terests of the United States. The French were in need of 
money and the Americans could afford to pay well for the con- 
trol of the entrance to the Mississippi. England stood ready 
to seize the coveted prize. The moment was opportune ; the 
negotiators on both sides were eager for the transfer. It did 
not take long to agree upon the consideration of 80,000,000 
francs as the purchase-money, and the assent of Bonaparte was 
secured. "I have given to England," he said, exultingly, " a 
maritime rival that will sooner or later humble her pride." It 
is evident that the history of the United States has been largely 
influenced by this transaction, which virtually extended the 
national domain from the mouth of the Mississippi river to the 
mouth of the Columbia. Monroe went from Paris to London, 
where he was accredited to the court of St. James, and subse- 
quently went to Spain in order to negotiate for the cession of 
Florida to the United States. But he was not successful in 
this, and returned to London, where, with the aid of William 
Pinckney, who was sent to re-enforce his efforts, he concluded 
a treaty with Great Britain after long negotiations frequently 
interrupted. This treaty failed to meet the expectations of the 
United States in two important particulars — it made no provi- 
sions against the impressment of seamen, and it secured no 
indemnity for loss that Americans had incurred in the seizure 
of their goods and vessels. Jefferson was so dissatisfied that 
he would not send the treaty to the senate. Monroe returned 
home in 1807 and at once drew up an elaborate defence of his 
political conduct. Matters were evidently drifting toward war 
between Great Britain and the United States. Again the dis- 



• JAMES MONROE. H^ 

appointed and discredited diplomatist received a token of pop- 
ular approbation. He was for the third time elected to the 
assembly, and in 1811 was chosen for the second time governor 
of Virginia. He remained in this office but a short time, for he 
was soon called by Madison to the office of secretary of state. 
He held the portfolio durmg the next six years, from 181 1 to 
1817. In i8i4-'i5 he also acted as secretary of war. While he 
was a member of the cabinet of Madison, hostilities were begun 
between the United States and England. The public buildings 
in Washington were burned, and it was only by the most strenu- 
ous measures that the progress of the British was interrupted. 
Monroe gained much popularity by the measures that he took 
for the protection of the capital, and for the enthusiasm with 
which he prosecuted the war measures of the government. 

Monroe had now held almost every important station except 
that of president to which a politician could aspire. He had 
served in the legislature of Virginia, in the Continental con- 
gress, and in the senate of the United States. He had been 
a member of the convention that considered the ratification of 
the constitution, twice he had served as governor, twice he had 
been sent abroad as a minister, and he had been accredited to 
three great powers. He had held two places in the cabinet of 
Madison. With the traditions of those days, which regarded 
experience in political affairs a qualification for an exalted 
station, it was most natural that Monroe should become a can- 
didate for the presidency. Eight years previously his fitness 
for the office had been often discussed. Now, in 1816, at the 
age of fifty-nine years, almost exactly the age at which Jeffer- 
son and Madison attained the same position, he was elected 
president of the United States, receiving 183 votes in the elec- 
toral college against 34 that were given for Rufus King, the 
candidate of the Federalists. He continued in this office until 
1825. His second election in 1821 was made with almost com- 
plete unanimity, but one electoral vote being given against 
him. Daniel D. Tompkins was vice-president during both 
presidential terms. John Quincy Adams, John C. Calhoun, 
William H. Crawford, and William Wirt, were members of the 
cabinet during his entire administration. The principal sub- 
jects that engaged the attention of the president were the 
defences of the Atlantic seaboard, the promotion of internal 
improvements, the conduct of the Seminole war, the acquisition 



114 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



of Florida, the Missouri compromise, and the resistance to for- 
eign interference in American affairs, formulated in a declara- 
tion that is called the " Monroe doctrine." Two social events 
marked the beginning and the end of his administration : first, 
his ceremonious visit to the principal cities of the north and 
south; and second, the national reception of the Marquis de 
Lafayette, who came to this country as the nation's guest. The 
purchase of the Floridas was brought to a successful issue, 22 
Feb., 1819, by a treaty with Spain, concluded at Washington, 
and thus the control of the entire Atlantic and Gulf seaboard, 
from the St. Croix to the Sabine, was secured to the United 
States. Monroe's influence in the controversies that preceded 
the Missouri compromise does not appear to have been very 
strong. He showed none of the boldness which Jefferson 
would have exhibited under similar circumstances. He took 
more interest in guiding the national policy with respect to 
internal improvements and the defence of the seaboard. He 
vetoed the Cumberland road bill, 4 May, 1822, on the ground 
that congress had no right to execute a system of internal im- 
provement ; but he held that if such powers could be secured 
by constitutional amendment good results would follow. Even 
then he held that the general government should undertake 
only works of national significance, and should leave all minor 
improvements to the separate states. There is no measure 
with which the name of Monroe is connected so important as 
his enunciation of "the Monroe doctrine." The words of this 
famous utterance constitute two paragraphs in the president's 
message of 2 Dec, 1823. In the first of these paragraphs he 
declares that the governments of Russia and Great Britain 
have been informed that the American continents henceforth 
are not to be considered subjects for future colonization by 
any European powers. In the second paragraph he says that 
the United States would consider any attempt on the part of 
the European powers to extend their system to any portion of 
this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. He goes 
further, and says that if the governments established in North 
and South America who have declared their independence of 
European control should be interfered with by any European 
power, this interference would be regarded as the manifestation 
of unfriendly disposition to the United States. These utter- 
ances were addressed especially to Spain and Portugal. They 



JAMES MONROE. II5 

undoubtedly expressed the dominant sentiments of the people 
of the United States at the time they were uttered, and, more- 
over, they embodied a doctrine which had been vaguely held in 
the days of Washington, and from that time to the administra- 
tion of Monroe had been more and more clearly avowed. It 
has received the approval of successive administrations and of 
the foremost publicists and statesmen. The peace and pros- 
perity of America have been greatly promoted by the declara- 
tion, almost universally assented to, that European states are 
not to gain new dominion in America. For convenience of 
reference the two passages of the message are here quoted : 

"At the proposal of the Russian imperial government, made 
through the minister of the emperor residing here, full power 
and instructions have been transmitted to the minister of the 
United States at St. Petersburg, to arrange, by amicable nego- 
tiation, the respective rights and interests of the two nations 
on the northwest coast of this continent. A similar proposal 
had been made by his imperial majesty to the government of 
Great Britain, which has likewise been acceded to. The gov- 
ernment of the United States has been desirous, by this friendly 
proceeding, of manifesting the great value which they have 
invariably attached to the friendship of the emperor, and their 
solicitude to cultivate the best understanding with his govern- 
ment. In the discussions to which this interest has given rise, 
and in the arrangements by which they may terminate, the oc- 
casion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in 
which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, 
that the American continents, by the free and independent con- 
dition which they have assumed and maintain, ^are henceforth 
not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any 
European power. . . . We owe it, therefore, to candor, and to 
the amicable relations existing between the United States and 
those powers, to declare that we should consider any attempt 
on their part to extend their system to any portion of this 
hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the 
existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we 
have not interfered, and shall not interfere. But with the 
governments who have declared their independence and main- 
tained it, and whose independence we have, on great considera- 
tion and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view 
any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or con- 
9 



Il6 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

trolling in any other manner their destiny, by any European 
power, in any other light than as the manifestation of an 
unfriendly disposition toward the United States." 

At the close of Monroe's second term as president he re- 
tired to private life, and during the seven years that remained 
to him resided part of the time at Oak Hill, Loudon co., Va., 
and part of the time in the city of New York. The illustration 
on page no represents both the old and the new Oak Hill 
mansions. He accepted the office of regent in the University 
of Virginia in 1826 with Jefferson and Madison. He was asked 
to serve on the electoral ticket of Virginia in 1828, but declined 
on the ground that an ex-president should not be a party- 
leader. He consented to act as a local magistrate, however, 
and to become a member of the Virginia constitutional conven- 
tion. The administration of Monroe has often been designated 
as the "era of good feeling." Schouler, the historian, has 
found this heading on an article that appeared in the Boston 
"Centiner'of 12 July, 1817. It is, on the whole, a suitable 
phrase to indicate the state of political affairs that succeeded 
to the troublesome period of organization and preceded the 
fearful strains of threatened disruption and of civil war. One 
idea is consistently represented by Monroe from the beginning 
to the end of his public life — the idea that America is for 
Americans, that the territory of the United States is to be pro- 
tected and enlarged, and that foreign intervention will never 
be permitted. In his early youth Monroe enlisted for the de- 
fence of American independence. He was one of the first to 
perceive the importance of free navigation upon the Missis- 
sippi ; he negotiated with France and Spain for the acquisition 
of Louisiana and Florida; he gave a vigorous impulse to the 
second war with Great Britain in defence of our maritime 
rights when the rights of a neutral power were endangered ; 
and he enunciated a dictum against foreign interference which 
has now the force of international law. Judged by the high 
stations he was called upon to fill, his career was brilliant ; but 
the writings he has left in state papers and correspondence are 
inferior to those of Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and others 
of his contemporaries. He is rather to be honored as an up- 
right and patriotic citizen who served his party with fidelity 
and never condescended to low and unworthy measures. He 
deserved well of the country, which he served faithfully during 



JAMES MONROE. 



117 



his career. After his retirement from the office of president 
he urged upon the government the judgment of unsettled 
claims which he presented for outlays made during his pro- 
longed political services abroad, and for which he had never 
received adequate remuneration. During the advance of old 
age his time was largely occupied in correspondence, and he 
undertook to write a philosophical history of the origin of free 
governments, which was published long after his decease. 
While attending congress, Monroe married, in 1786, a daughter 
of Lawrence Kortright, of New York. One of his two daugh- 
ters, Eliza, married George Hay, of Virginia, and the other, 
Maria, married Samuel L. Gouverneur, of New York. 

A large number of manuscripts, including drafts of state 
papers, letters addressed to Monroe, and letters from him, have 
been preserved. Most of these have been purchased by con- 
gress and are preserved in the archives of the state depart- 
ment ; others are still held by his descendants. Schouler, in 
his " History of the United States," has made use of this mate- 
rial to advantage, particularly in his account of the administra- 
tions of Madison and Monroe, which he has treated in detail. 
Bancroft, in his " History of the Constitution," draws largely 
upon the Monroe papers, many of which he prints for the first 
time. The eulogy of John Quincy 
Adams (Boston, 1831) and his diary 
afford the best contemporary view of 
Monroe's characteristics as a states- 
man. Jefferson, Madison, Webster, 
Calhoun, and Colonel Benton have 
each left their appreciative esti- 
mates of his character. 

The remains of James Monroe 
were buried in Marble cemetery^ 
Second street, between First and 
Second avenues, New York, but in 
1858 were taken to Richmond, Va., 
and there reinterred on the 28th 
of April, in Hollywood Cemetery. 
(See illustration.) See Samuel P. Waldo's "Tour of James 
Monroe through the Northern and Eastern States, with a 
Sketch of his Life" (Hartford, 1819); "Life of James Monroe, 
with a Notice of his Administration," by John Quincy Adams 




ii8 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



(Buffalo, 1850); "Concise History of the Monroe Doctrine," 
by George F. Tucker (Boston, 1885) ; and Daniel C. Oilman's 
life of Monroe, in the "American Statesmen " series (Boston, 
1883). In the volume last named is an appendix by J. F. Jame- 
son, which gives a list of writings pertaining to Monroe's 
career and to the Monroe doctrine. President Monroe's por- 
trait by Gilbert Stuart is in the possession of Thomas J. Coo- 
lidge, of Massachusetts, late American minister to France, and 
that by John Vanderlyn is in the City-hall, New York, both of 
which have been engraved. 

His wife, Elizabeth Kortright, born in New York city 
in 1768; died in Loudon county, Va., in 1830, was the daugh- 
ter of Lawrence Kortright, a captain 
in the British army. She married 
James Monroe in 1786, accompanied 
him in his missions abroad in 1794 
and 1803, and while he was U. S. 
minister to France she effected the 
release of Madame de Lafayette, 
who was confined in the prison of 
La Force, hourly expecting to be 
executed. On the accession of her 
husband to the presidency Mrs. 
Monroe became the mistress of the 
White House ; but she mingled lit- 
tle in society on account of her 
delicate health. She is described by 
a contemporary writer as " an ele- 
gant and accomplished woman, with a dignity of manner that 
peculiarly fitted her for the station." The accompanying vi- 
gnette is copied from the only portrait that was ever made of 
Mrs. Monroe, which was executed in Paris in 1796. 

His nephew, James, soldier, born in Albemarle county, Va., 
10 Sept., 1799; died in Orange, N. J., 7 Sept., 1870, was a son 
of the president's elder brother, Andrew. He was graduated 
at the U. S. military academy in 1815, assigned to the artillery 
corps, and served in the war with Algiers, in which he was 
wounded while directing part of the quarter-deck guns of the 
** Guerriere " in an action with the " Mashouda " off Cape de 
Gata, Spain. He was aide to Gen. Winfield Scott in i8i7-'22, 
became ist lieutenant of the 4th artillery on the reorganization 




(^£it^-^:fi%i 



'•TW-^'^-C-p. 



JAMES MONROE. HO 

of the army in 1821, and served on garrison and commissary 
duty till 1832, when he was again appointed Gen. Scott's aide 
on the Black Hawk expedition, but did not reach the seat of 
war, owing to illness. He resigned his commission on 30 Sept., 
1832, and entered politics, becoming an alderman of New York 
city in 1833, and president of the board in 1834. In 1836 he 
declined the appointment of aide to Gov. William L. Marcy. 
He was in congress in i839-'4i, and was chosen again in 1846, 
but his seat was contested, and congress ordered a new elec- 
tion, at which he refused to be a candidate. During the Mexi- 
can war he was active in urging the retention in command of 
Gen. Scott. In i85o-'2 he was in the New York legislature, 
and in 1852 was an earnest supporter of his old chief for the 
presidency. After the death of his wife in that year he retired 
from politics, and spent much of his time at the Union club, of 
which he was one of the earliest and most popular members. 
Just before the civil war he visited Richmond, and, by public 
speeches and private effort, tried to prevent the secession of 
Virginia, and in the struggle that followed he remained a firm 
supporter of the National government. He much resembled 
his uncle in personal appearance 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States, 
born in Braintree, Mass., ii July, 1767; died in Washington, 
D. C, 23 Feb., 1848. He was named for his mother's grandfather, 
John Quincy. In his eleventh year he accompanied his father 
"T to France, and was sent to school near Paris, where his pro- 
ficiency in the French language and other studies soon became 
conspicuous. In the following year he returned to America, and 
back again to France with his father, whom, in August, 1780, he 
accompanied to Holland. After a few months at school in Am- 

• sterdam, he entered the university of Leyden. Two years after- 
ward John Adams's secretary of legation, Francis Dana, was 
appointed minister to Russia, and the boy accompanied him as 
private secretary. After a stay of fourteen months, as Catha- 
rine's government refused to recognize Mr. Dana as minister, 
young Adams left St. Petersburg and travelled alone through 
Sweden, Denmark, and northern Germany to France, spending 
six months in the journey. Arriving in Paris, he found his father 
busy with the negotiation of the treaty of peace between Great 
Britain and the United States, and was immediately set to work 
as secretary, and aided in drafting the papers that "dispersed 
all possible doubt of the independence of his country." In 
1785, when his father was appointed minister to England, he 
decided not to stay with him in London, but to return at once 
to Massachusetts in order to complete his education at Harvard 
college. For an American career he believed an American edu- 

V cation to be best fitted. Considering the immediate sacrifice of 
pleasure involved, it was a remarkably wise decision in a lad of 
eighteen. But Adams's character was already fully formed ; he 
was what he remained throughout his life, a Puritan of the 
sternest and most uncompromising sort, who seemed to take a 
grim enjoyment in the performance of duty, especially when 







3. §L^ ^dcxA^rU, 



11 Appleiori & Gu 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. I2i 

disagreeable. Returning home, he was graduated at Harvard 
college in 1788, and then studied law in the ofifice of Theophiius 
Parsons, afterward chief justice of Massachusetts. In 1791 he 
was admitted to the Suffolk bar, and began the practice of law, 
the tedium of which he relieved by writing occasional articles 
for the papers. Under the signature of "Publicola" he criti- 
cised some positions taken by Thomas Paine in his " Rights of 
Man "; and these articles, when republished in England, were 
generally attributed to his father. In a further series of papers, 
signed " Marcellus," he defended Washington's policy of neu- 
trality ; and in a third series, signed "Columbus," he discussed 
the extraordinary behavior of Citizen Genet, whom the Jaco- 
bins had sent over to browbeat the Americans into joining 
France in hurling defiance at the world. These writings made 
him so conspicuous that in 1794 Washington appointed him 
minister to Holland, and two years later made an appointment 
transferring him to Portugal. Before he had started for the 
latter country his father became president of the United States, 
and asked Washington's advice as to the propriety of promoting 
his own son by sending him to Berlin. Washington in strong 
terms recommended the promotion, declaring that in his opin- 
ion the young man would prove to be the ablest diplomat in 
the American service. In the fall of 1797 Mr. Adams accord- 
ingly took up his residence at the capital of Prussia. Shortly 
before this he had married Miss Louisa Johnson, a niece of 
Thomas Johnson, of Maryland. During his residence at Berlin 
Mr. Adams translated Wieland's " Oberon " into English. In 
1798 he was commissioned to make a commercial treaty with 
Sweden. In 1800 he made a journey through Silesia, and wrote 
an account of it, which was published in London and afterward 
translated into German and French. When Jefferson became 
president, Mr, Adams's mission terminated. He resumed the 
practice of law in Boston, but in 1802 was elected to the Massa- 
chusetts senate, and next year was chosen to the senate of the 
United States instead of Timothy Pickering. The federalist 
party was then rent in twain by the feud between the partisans 
of John Adams and those of Hamilton, and the reception of 
the younger Adams in the senate was far from flattering. Af- 
fairs grew worse when, at the next vacancy, Pickering was 
chosen to be his uncongenial colleague. Mr. Adams was 
grossly and repeatedly insulted. Any motion he might make 



^ 



122 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

was sure to be rejected by the combined votes of republicans 
and Hamiltonians, though frequently the same motion, made 
soon afterward by somebody else, would be carried by a large 
majority. A committee of which he was a member would make 
and send in its report without even notifying him of its time 
and place of meeting. At first Mr. Adams was subjected to 
such treatment merely because he was the son of his father ; 
but presently he rendered himself more and more amenable to 
it by manifesting the same independence of party ties that had 
made his father so unpopular. Independence in politics has 
always been characteristic of the Adams family, and in none 
has this been more strongly marked than in John Quincy 
Adams. His first serious difference with the federalist party 
was occasioned by his qualified approval of Jefferson's purchase 
of Louisiana, a measure that was bitterly opposed and fiercely 
censured by nearly all the federalists, because it was feared it 
would add too much strength to the south. A much more seri- 
ous difference arose somewhat later, on the question of the em- 
bargo. Questions of foreign rather than of domestic policy 
then furnished the burning subjects of contention in the United 
States. Our neutral commerce on the high seas, which had 
risen to very considerable proportions, was plundered in turn 
by England and by France, until its very existence was threat- 
ened. In May, 1806, the British government declared the 
northern coast of Europe, from Brest to the mouth of the Elbe, 
to be blockaded. By the Russian proclamation of 1780, which 
was then accepted by all civilized nations except Great Britain, 
such paper blockades were illegal; but British ships none the 
less seized and confiscated American vessels bound to any port 
on that coast. In November Napoleon issued his Berlin decree 
making a paper blockade of the whole British coast, whereupon 
French cruisers began seizing and confiscating American ves- 
sels on their way from British to French ports. Two months 
later England issued an order in council, forbidding neutrals to 
trade between any of her enemy's ports; and this was followed 
by orders decreeing fines or confiscation to all neutral ships 
daring to violate the edict. In December, 1807, Napoleon re- 
plied with the Milan decree, threatening to confiscate all ships 
bound to England, or which should have paid a fine to the 
British government or submitted to search at the hands of a 
British commander. 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 1 23 

All these decrees and orders were in flagrant violation of 
international law, and for a time they made the ocean a pan- 
demonium of robbery and murder. Their effect upon Ameri- 
can commerce was about the same as if both England and 
France had declared war against the United States. Their 
natural and proper effect upon the American people would 
have been seen in an immediate declaration of war against 
both England and France, save that our military weakness was 
then too manifest to make such a course anything but ridicu- 
lous. Between the animus of the two bullies by whom we 
were thus tormented there was little to choose; but in two re- 
spects England's capacity for injuring us was the greater. In 
the first place, she had more ships engaged in this highway 
robbery than France, and stronger ones ; in the second place, 
owing to the difficulty of distinguishing between Americans 
and Englishmen, she was able to add the crowning wickedness 
of kidnapping American seamen. The wrath of the Americans 
was thus turned more against England than against France; 
and never perhaps in the revolutionary war had it waxed 
stronger than in the summer of 1807, when, in full sight of the 
American coast, the "Leopard" fired upon the ''Chesapeake," 
killed and wounded several of her crew, and violently carried 
away four of them. For this outrage the commander of the 
" Leopard " was promoted in the British service. In spite of 
all these things, the hatred of the federalists for France was so 
great that they were ready to put up with insult added to in- 
jury rather than attack the power that was warring against 
Napoleon. So far did these feelings carry them that Mr. John 
Lowell, a prominent federalist of Boston, was actually heard 
to defend the action of the " Leopard." Such pusillanimity 
incensed Mr. Adams. " This was the cause," he afterward 
said, " which alienated me from that day and forever from the 
councils of the federal party." He tried to persuade the fed- 
eralists of Boston to hold a meeting and pledge their support 
to the government in any measures, however serious, that it 
might see fit to adopt in order to curb the insolence of Great 
Britain. But these gentlemen were too far blinded by party 
feeling to respond to the call ; whereupon Mr. Adams attended 
a republican meeting, at which he was put upon a committee 
to draft and report such resolutions. Presently the federalists 
bowed to the storm of popular feeling and held their meeting, 



124 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



at which Mr. Adams was also present and drafted resolutions. 
For his share in the proceedings of the republicans it was 
threatened that he should " have his head taken off for apos- 
tasy." It was never of much use to threaten Mr. Adams. 
An extra session of congress was called in October to consider 
what was to be done. Mr. Jefferson's government was averse 
to war, for which the country was ill prepared, and it was 
thought that somewhat milder measures might harass England 
until she would submit to reason. For a year and a half a 
non-importation act had been in force ; but it had proved no 
more effective than the non-importation agreements of 1768 
and 1774. Now an embargo was laid upon all the shipping in 
American ports. The advantage of such a measure was very 
doubtful ; it was damaging ourselves in the hope of damaging 
the enemy. The greatest damage fell upon the maritime states 
of New England, and there the vials of federalist wrath were 
poured forth with terrible fury upon Mr. Jefferson and the em- 
bargo. But the full measure of their ferocity was reserved for 
Mr. Adams, who had actually been a member of the committee 
that reported the bill, and had given it his most earnest sup- 
port. All the choicest epithets of abuse were showered upon 
him; few men in our history have been more fiercely berated 
and reviled. His term of service in the senate was to expire 
on 3 March, 1809. In the preceding June the Massachusetts 
legislature chose Mr. Lloyd to succeed him, a proceeding that 
was intended and accepted as an insult. Mr. Adams instantly 
resigned, and Mr. Lloyd was chosen to fill the remainder of his 
term. In the course of the next month the republicans of his 
congressional district wished to elect him to the house of rep- 
resentatives, but he refused. In 1806 Mr. Adams had been 
appointed professor of rhetoric and belles-lettres at Harvard 
college, and in the intervals of his public duties had delivered 
lectures there, which were published in 1810, and for a time 
were held in esteem. 

One of Mr. Madison's first acts on succeeding to the presi- 
dency in 1809 was to nominate Mr. Adams minister to Russia. 
Since Mr. Dana's failure to secure recognition in 1782, the 
United States had had no minister in that country, and the new- 
mission was now to be created. The senate at first declined to 
concur in creating the mission, but a few months later the object- 
ors yielded, and Mr. Adams's nomination was confirmed. He 



3- 



3 

i 
^ 






4 ■if -^ ^ 1 1 









^ ^ %^ sT^ 



fi 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 1 25 

was very courteously received by Alexander I., and his four 
years and a half in Russia passed very pleasantly. His diary 
gives us a vivid account of the Napoleonic invasion and its disas- 
trous ending. In the autumn of 1812 the czar offered his serv- 
ices as mediator between the United States and Great Brit- 
ain. War had only been declared between these powers three 
months before, but the American government promptly ac- 
cepted the proposal, and, in the height of the popular enthusi- 
asm over the naval victories of Hull and Decatur, sent Messrs. 
Gallatin and Bayard to St. Petersburg to act as commissioners 
with Mr. Adams. The British government refused to accept 
the mediation of Russia, but proposed instead an independent 
negotiation, to which the United States agreed, and the com- 
missioners were directed to meet at Ghent. Much time was 
consumed in these arrangements, while we were defeating 
England again and again on the sea, and suffering in return 
some humiliating reverses on land, until at last the commis- 
sioners met at Ghent, in August, 1814. Henry Clay and Jona- 
than Russell were added to the American commission, while 
England was represented by Lord Gambler, Dr. Adams, and 
Mr. Goulburn. After four months of bitter wrangling, from 
which no good result could have been expected, terms of peace 
were suddenly agreed upon in December. In warding off the 
British attempts to limit our rights in the fisheries Mr. Adams 
played an important part, as his father had done in 1782. The 
war had been a drawn game, neither side was decisively vic- 
torious, and the treaty apparently left things much as before. 
Nothing was explicitly done to end the pretensions of England 
to the right of search and the impressment of seamen, yet the 
naval victories of the United States had taught the British a 
lesson, and these pretensions were never renewed. The treaty 
was a great disappointment to the British people, who had 
hoped to obtain some advantages, and Mr. Adams, for his 
share in it, was reviled by the London press in a tone which 
could not but be regarded as a compliment to his powers. After 
the conclusion of the treaty he visited Paris and witnessed the 
return of Napoleon from Elba and the exciting events that 
followed up to the eve of Waterloo. Here his wife and chil- 
dren joined him, after a tedious journey from St. Petersburg, 
not without distress and peril by the way. By this time Mr. 
Adams had been appointed commissioner, with Clay and Gal- 



126 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 




latin, to negotiate a new commercial treaty with England. 
This treaty was completed on 13 July, 1815 ; but already, on 
26 May, when Mr. Adams arrived in London, he had received 
the news of his appointment as minister to England. The 
series of double coincidences in the Adams family between 
missions to England and treaties with that power is curious. 
First John Adams is minister, just after his share in the treaty 
that concluded the revolutionary war, then his son, just after 

the treaty that conclud- 



ed the war of i8i2-'i5, 
and then the grandson 
is minister during the 
civil war and afterward 
takes part in the treaty 
that disposed of the Ala- 
bama question. 

After an absence of 
eight years, John Quin- 
cy Adams was called 
back to his native land to serve as secretary of state under 
President Monroe. A new era in American politics was dawn- 
ing. The war which had just been concluded has sometimes 
been called our second war of independence; certainly the 
year 1815, which saw the end of the long strife between 
France and England, marks an important era in American his- 
tory. Our politics ceased to be concerned mainly with foreign 
affairs. So suddenly were men's bones of political contention 
taken away from them that Monroe's presidency is traditionally 
remembered as the "era of good feeling." So far as political 
parties were concerned, such an epithet is well applied ; but as 
between prominent individuals struggling covertly to supplant 
one another, it was anything rather than an era of good feel- 
ing. Mr. Adams's principal achievement as secretary of state 
was the treaty with Spain, whereby Florida was ceded to the 
United States in consideration of $5,000,000, to be applied to 
the liquidation of outstanding claims of American merchants 
against Spain. By the same treaty the boundary between 
Louisiana and Mexico was established as running along the 
Sabine and Red rivers, the upper Arkansas, the crest of the 
Rocky mountains, and the 42d parallel. Mr. Adams defended 
the conduct of Gen. Jackson in invading Spanish Florida and 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 12/ 

hanging Arbuthnot and Ambrister. He supported the poUcy 
of recognizing the independence of the revolted colonies of 
Spanish America, and he was the principal author of what is 
known as the " Monroe Doctrine," that the American continent 
is no longer open to colonization by European powers. His 
ofificial report on weights and measures showed remarkable 
scientific knowledge. Toward the close of Monroe's first term 
came up the first great political question growing out of the 
purchase of Louisiana: Should Missouri be admitted to the 
union as a slave-state, and should slavery be allowed or pro- 
hibited in the vast territory beyond ? After the Missouri com- 
promise had passed through congress, and been submitted to 
President Monroe for his signature, two questions were laid 
before the cabinet. First, had congress the constitutional right 
to prohibit slavery in a territory ? and, secondly, in prohibit- 
ing slavery " forever " in the territory north of Mason and 
Dixon's line, as prolonged beyond the Mississippi river, did the 
Missouri bill refer to this district only so long as it should re- 
main under territorial government, or did it apply to such 
states as might in future be formed from it ? To the first ques- 
tion the cabinet replied unanimously in the affirmative. To the 
second question Mr. Adams replied that the term " forever " 
really meant forever ; but all his colleagues replied that it 
only meant so long as the district in question should remain 
under territorial government. Here for the first time we see 
Mr. Adams taking that firm stand m opposition to slavery 
which hereafter was to make him so famous. 

Mr. Monroe's second term of office had scarcely begun 
when the question of the succession came into the foreground. 
The candidates were John Quincy Adams, secretary of state ; 
William H. Crawford, secretary of the treasury ; John C. Cal- 
houn, secretary of war; and Henry Clay, speaker of the 
house of representatives. Shortly before the election Gen. 
Jackson's strength began to loom up as more formidable than 
the other competitors had supposed. Jackson was then at the 
height of his popularity as a military hero, Crawford was the 
most dexterous political manager in the couutry. Clay was per- 
haps the most persuasive orator. Far superior to these three in 
intelligence and character, Mr. Adams was in no sense a popu- 
lar favorite. His manners were stiff and disagreeable; he told 
the truth bluntly, whether it hurt or not ; and he never took 



128 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

pains to conciliate any one. The best of men in his domestic 
circle, outside of it he had few warm friends, but he seemed to 
have a talent for making enemies. When Edward Everett 
asked him if he was "determined to do nothing with a view to 
promote his future election to the presidency as the successor 
of Mr. Monroe," he replied that he " should do absolutely 
nothing," and from this resolution he never swerved. He de- 
sired the presidency as much as any one who was ever chosen 
to that high office; but his nature was such that unless it 
should come to him without scheming of his own, and as the 
unsolicited expression of popular trust in him, all its value 
would be lost. Under the circumstances, it was a remarkable 
evidence of the respect felt for his lofty character and dis- 
tinguished services that he should have obtained the presi- 
dency at all. The result of the election showed 99 votes for 
Jackson, 84 for Adams, 41 for Crawford, 37 for Clay. Mr. 
Calhoun, who had withdrawn from the contest for the presi- 
dency, received 182 votes for the vice-presidency, and was 
elected. The choice of the president was thrown into the 
house of representatives, and Mr. Clay now used his great in- 
fluence in favor of Mr. Adams, who was forthwith elected. 
When Adams afterward made Clay his secretary of state, the 
disappointed partisans of Jackson pretended that there had 
been a bargain between the two, that Adams had secured 
Clay's assistance by promising him the first place in the cabi- 
net, and thus, according to a usage that seemed to be estab- 
lishing itself, placing him in the line of succession for the next 
presidency. The peppery John Randolph characterized this 
supposed bargain as "a coalition between Blifil and Black 
George, the Puritan and the Blackleg." There never was a 
particle of foundation for this reckless charge, and it has long 
since been disproved. 

During Monroe's administration the Federalist party had 
become extinct. In the course of John Quincy Adams's ad- 
ministration the new division of parties into Whigs and Dem- 
ocrats began to grow up, the Whigs favoring internal improve- 
ments, the national bank, and a high tariff on importations, 
while the Democrats opposed all such measures on the ground 
that they were incompatible with a strict construction of the 
constitution. In its relation to such questions Mr. Adams's 
administration was Whig, and thus arrayed against itself not 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 



129 




(j a/ulju\j~jy\jc yLcLa/v\/\^ 



only all the southern planters, but also the ship-owners of New 
England and the importers of New York. But a new and 
powerful tendency now came in to overwhelm such an admin- 
istration as that of Adams. The so-called " spoils system " 
was already germinating, and the 
time had come when it could be put 
into operation. Mr. Adams would 
have nothing to say to such a sys- 
tem. He would not reward the men 
who worked for him, and he would 
not remove from office the men 
who most vigorously opposed him. 
He stood on his merits, asked no 
favors and granted none; and was, 
on the whole, the most independent 
president we have had since Wash- 
ington. Jackson and his friends 
promised their supporters a share 
in the government offices, in which 
a "clean sweep" was to be made by turning out the present 
mcumbents. The result of the election of 1828 showed that for 
the time Jackson's method was altogether the more potent ; 
since he obtained 178 electoral votes, against 83 for Adams. 

The close of his career as president was marked by an inci- 
dent that increased the odium in which Mr. Adams was held 
by so many of the old federalist families of Boston. In the 
excitement of the election the newspapers devoted to Jackson 
swarmed with mischievous paragraphs designed to injure 
Adams's reputation. Among other things it was said that, in 
1808, he had suspected some of the federalist leaders of enter- 
taining a scheme for carrying New England out of the union, 
and, fearing that such a scheme would be promoted by hatred 
of the embargo, and that in case of its success the seceded 
states would almost inevitably be driven into alliance with 
Great Britain, he communicated his suspicions to President 
Jefferson and other leadmg republicans. These tales, published 
by unscrupulous newspapers twenty years after the event, 
grossly distorted what Mr. Adams had actually said and done; 
and thirteen eminent Massachusetts federalists addressed to 
him an open letter, demanding that he should bring in a bill of 
particulars supported by evidence. Adams replied by stating 



I30 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



the substance of what he had really said, but declining to 
mention names or to point out the circumstances upon which 
his suspicion had been based. In preserving this reticence he 
was actuated mainly by unwillingness to stir up a furious con- 
troversy under circumstances in which it could do no good. 
But his adversaries made the mistake of attributing his for- 
bearance to dread of ill consequences to himself — a motive by 
which, It is safe to say, Mr. Adams was never influenced on 
any occasion whatever. So the thirteen gentlemen returned 
to the attack. Mr. Adams then wrote out a full statement of 
the case, completely vindicating himself, and bringing forward 
more than enough evidence to justify any such suspicions as 
he had entertained and guardedly stated. After finishing this 
pamphlet he concluded not to issue it, but left it among his 
papers. It has been published by Prof. Henry Adams, in his 
" Documents relating to New England Federalism," and is not 
only of great historical importance, but is one of the finest speci- 
mens of political writing to be found in the English language. 

Although now an ex-president, Mr. Adams did not long 
remain in private life. The greatest part of his career still lay 
before him. Owing to the mysterious disappearance of William 
Morgan, who had betrayed some of the secrets of the Masonic 
order, there was in some of the northern states a sudden and 
violent prejudice against the Freemasons and secret societies 
in general. An " anti-mason party " was formed, and by its 
votes Mr. Adams was, in 1831, elected to congress, where he 
remained, representing the same district of Massachusetts 
until his death in 1848. He was shortly afterward nominated 
by the anti-masons for the governorship of Massachusetts, but 
was defeated in the legislature, there being no choice by the 
people. In congress he occupied a perfectly independent atti- 
tude. He was one of those who opposed President Jackson's 
high-handed treatment of the bank, but he supported the presi- 
dent in his firm attitude toward the South Carolina nullifiers 
and toward France. In 1835, ^s the French government de- 
layed in paying over the indemnity of $5,000,000 which had 
been agreed upon by the treaty of 1831 for plunder of Amer- 
ican shipping in the Napoleonic wars, Jackson threatened, in 
case payment should be any longer deferred, to issue letters of 
marque and reprisal agamst French commerce. This bold 
policy, which was successful in obtaining the money, enlisted 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. I^I 

Mr. Adams's hearty support. He defended Jackson as he had 
defended Jefferson on the occasion of the embargo ; and this 
time, as before, his course was disapproved in Massachusetts, 
and he lost a seat in the U. S. senate. He had been chosen to 
that office by the state senate, but the lower house did not 
concur, and before the question was decided the news of his 
speech in favor of reprisals turned his supporters against him. 
He was thus left in the house of representatives more inde- 
pendent of party ties than ever, and was accordingly enabled 
to devote his energies to the aid of the abolitionists, who were 
now beginning to appear conspicuously upon the scene. At 
that time it was impossible for the opponents of slavery to 
effect much. The only way in which they could get their case 
before congress was by presenting petitions for the abolition 
of slavery in the District of Columbia. Unwilling to receive 
such petitions, or to allow any discussion on the dreaded ques- 
tion, congress in 1836 enacted the cowardly " gag rule," that 
"all petitions, memorials, resolutions, or papers relating in any 
way or to any extent whatsoever to the subject of slavery or 
the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed or 
referred, be laid upon the table; and that no further action 
whatever shall be had thereon." After the yeas and nays had 
been ordered on this, when Mr. Adams's name was called he 
rose and said : " I hold the resolution to be a direct violation 
of the constitution of the United States, the rules of this house, 
and the rights of my constituents." The house sought to 
drown his words with loud shrieks and yells of "Order!" 
" Order ! " but he raised his voice to a shout and defiantly 
finished his sentence. The rule was adopted by a vote of 117 
to 68, but it did more harm than good to the pro-slavery party. 
They had put themselves in an untenable position, and fur- 
nished Mr. Adams with a powerful weapon which he used 
against them without mercy. As a parliamentary debater he 
has had few if any superiors ; in knowledge and dexterity there 
was no one in the house who could be compared with him; he 
was always master of himself, even at the white heat of anger 
to which he often rose ; he was terrible in invective, matchless 
at repartee, and insensible to fear. A single-handed fight 
against all the slave-holders in the house was something upon 
which he was always ready to enter, and he usually came off 
with the last word. Though the vituperative vocabulary of 



132 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



the English language seemed inadequate to express the hatred 
and loathing with which the pro-slavery party regarded him, 
though he was more than once threatened with assassination, 
nevertheless his dauntless bearing and boundless resources 
compelled the respect of his bitterest opponents, and members 
from the south, with true chivalry, sometimes confessed it. 
Every session he returned to the assault upon the gag-rule, 
until the disgraceful measure was rescinded in 1845. This part 
of Mr. Adams's career consisted of a vast number of small 
incidents, which make a very interesting and instructive chapter 
in American history, but can not well be epitomized. He came 
to serve as the rallying-point in congress for the ever-growing 
anti-slavery sentiment, and may be regarded, in a certain 
sense, as the first founder of the new republican party. He 
seems to have been the first to enunciate the doctrine upon 
which Mr. Lincoln afterward rested his great proclamation of 
emancipation. In a speech in congress in 1836 he said: "From 
the instant that your slave-holding states become the theatre 
of war — civil, servile, or foreign — from that instant the war 
powers of the constitution extend to interference with the insti- 
tution of slavery in every way in which it can be interfered 
with." As this principle was attacked by the southern mem- 
bers, Mr. Adams from time to time reiterated it, especially in 
his speech of 14 April, 1842, on the question of war with Eng- 
land and Mexico, when he said : " Whether the war be civil, 
servile, or foreign, I lay this down as the law of nations: I say 
that the military authority takes for the time the place of all 
municipal institutions, slavery among the rest. Under that 
state of things, so far from its being true that the states where 
slavery exists have the exclusive management of the subject, 
not only the president of the United States, but the commander 
of the army unquestionably has power to order the universal 
emancipation of the slaves." 

After the rescinding of the gag-rule Mr. Adams spoke less 
frequently. In November, 1846, he had a shock of paralysis, 
which kept him at home four months. On 21 Feb., 1848, while 
he was sitting in the house of representatives, came the second 
shock. He was carried into the speaker's room, where he lay 
two days, and died on the 23d. His last words were : " This is 
the last of earth ; I am content." See " Life and Public Serv- 
ices of John Quincy Adams," by William H. Seward (Auburn, 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 



133 



1849) ; " Life of John Quincy Adams," by Josiah Quincy (Bos- 
ton, 1858) ; " Diary of John Quincy Adams," edited by Charles 
F. Adams, 12 vols., 8vo (Philadelphia, i874-'7) ; and " John 
Quincy Adams," by John T. Morse, Jr. (Boston, 1882). 

The steel portrait of Mr. Adams, facing page 120, is from a 
picture by Marchant, in the possession of the New York His- 
torical Society. The mansion represented on page 126 is the 
Adams homestead at Quincy, in which the two presidents lived, 
was the summer residence of Charles Francis Adams, and is 
now occupied by his oldest son, John Quincy Adams. 

Charles Francis Adams, diplomatist, son of John Quincy 
Adams, born in Boston, 18 Aug., 1807; died there, 21 Nov., 
1886. When two years old he was taken by his father to St. 
Petersburg, where he learned German, French, and Russian. 
Early in 1815 he travelled all the way from St. Petersburg to 
Paris with his mother in a private 
carriage, a difficult journey at that 
time, and not unattended with dan- 
ger. His father was soon after- 
ward appointed minister to Eng- 
land, and the little boy was placed 
at an English boarding - school. 
The feelings between British and 
Americans was then more hostile 
than ever before or since, and 
young Adams was frequently called 
upon to defend with his fists the 
good name of his country. When 
he returned after two years to 

America, his father placed him in the Boston Latin school, and 
he was graduated at Harvard college in 1825, shortly after his 
father's inauguration as president of the United States. He 
spent two years in Washington, and then returned to Boston, 
where he studied law in the office of Daniel Webster, and was 
admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1828. The next year he married 
the youngest daughter of Peter Chardon Brooks, whose elder 
daughters were married to Edward Everett and Rev. Nathaniel 
L. Frothingham. From 1831 to 1836 Mr. Adams served in the 
Massachusetts legislature. He was a member of the whig party, 
but, like all the rest of his vigorous and free-thinking family, he 
was extremely independent in politics and inclined to strike out 




■&Ka/i^ t7r<i^ci> J^ayryx^, 



134 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



into new paths in advance of the public sentiment. After 1836 
he came to differ more and more widely with the leaders of the 
whig party with whom he had hitherto acted. In 1848 the newly 
organized free-soil party, consisting largely of democrats, held 
its convention at Buffalo and nommated Martin Van Buren for 
president and Charles Francis Adams for vice-president. There 
was no hope of electing these candidates, but this little party 
grew, six years later, into the great republican party. In 1858 
he was elected to congress by the republicans of the 3d district 
of Massachusetts, and in i860 he was reelected. In the spring 
of 1861 President Lincoln appointed him minister to England, 
a place which both his father and his grandfather had filled 
before him. Mr. Adams had now to fight with tongue and 
pen for his country as in school-boy days he had fought with 
fists. It was an exceedingly difficult time for an American 
minister in England. Though there was much sympathy for 
the U. S. government on the part of the workmen in the manu- 
facturing districts and of many of the liberal constituencies, es- 
pecially in Scotland, on the other hand the feeling of the gov- 
erning classes and of polite society in London was either ac- 
tively hostile to us or coldly indifferent. Even those students 
of history and politics who were most friendly to us failed 
utterly to comprehend the true character of the sublime strug- 
gle in which we were engaged — as may be seen in reading the 
introduction to Mr. E. A. Freeman's elaborate " History of 
Federal Government from the Formation of the Achaean League 
to the Disruption of the United States" (London, 1862). Dif- 
ficult and embarrassing questions arose in connection with the 
capture of the confederate commissioners Mason and Slidell, 
the negligence of Lord Palmerston's government in allowing 
the " Alabama " and other confederate cruisers to sail from 
British ports to prey upon American commerce, and the ever 
manifest desire of Napoleon III. to persuade Great Britain to 
join him in an acknowledgment of the independence of the 
confederacy. The duties of this difficult diplomatic mission 
were discharged by Mr. Adams with such consummate ability 
as to win universal admiration. No more than his father or 
grandfather did he belong to the school of suave and crafty, 
intriguing diplomats. He pursued his ends with dogged de- 
termination and little or no attempt at concealment, while his 
demeanor was haughty and often defiant. His unflinching 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 1 35 

firmness bore down all opposition, and his perfect self-control 
made it difficult for an antagonist to gain any advantage over 
him. His career in England from 1861 to 1868 must be cited 
among the foremost triumphs of American diplomacy. In 1872 
it was attempted to nominate him for the presidency of the 
United States, as the candidate of the liberal republicans, but 
Horace Greeley secured the nomination. He was elected in 
1869 a member of the board of overseers of Harvard univer- 
sity, and was for several years president of the board. Mr. 
Adams was a prominent member of the Geneva board of arbi- 
tration. He edited the works and wrote the memoirs of his 
father and grandfather, in 22 octavo volumes; the Familiar 
Letters of John Adams and his Wife, Abigail Adams, during 
the Revolution, with a Memoir of Mrs. Adams (New York, 
1876), a volume which takes its place by the side of the most 
valuable documents of that period, and published many of his 
addresses and orations. (See article on Mr. Adams by Dr. 
John G. Palfrey, in Lippincott's Magazine, vol. vii.) 

John Quincy, lawyer, eldest son of Charles Francis Adams, 
born in Boston, 22 Sept., 1833. He was graduated at Harvard 
college in 1853, and admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1855. Dur- 
ing the civil war he was on Gov. Andrew's staff. He was 
elected to the legislature by the town of Quincy in 1866, but 
failed to secure a reelection the following year because he had 
declared his approval of Andrew Johnson's policy. In 1869 
and 1870 he was again a member of the legislature. In 1867 
and 1871 he was democratic candidate for governor of Massa- 
chusetts, and was defeated. In 1877 he was chosen a member 
of the corporation of Harvard. Mr. Adams died 14 Aug., 1894, 

Charles Francis, lawyer, second son of Charles Francis 
Adams, born in Boston, 27 May, 1835. He was graduated at 
Harvard in 1856, and admitted to the bar in 1858. He served 
through almost the whole of the civil war, bemg commissioned 
lieutenant of the First Massachusetts cavalry in November, 
1861, and resigning as colonel of the Fifth Massachusetts 
Cavalry (colored), with the brevet of brigadier-general, in July, 
1865. In 1869 he was appointed a member of the board of 
railroad commissioners of Massachusetts, and continued in that 
office by successive reappointments until 1879, when he re- 
tired. He was then selected as one of the board of arbitra- 
tors for the executive committee of eastern trunk lines and 



136 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



western roads, and subsequently as sole arbitrator, which posi- 
tion he resigned in June, 1884, when he became president of 
the Union Pacific Railway Company. He continued president 
of that company until November, 1890. He then retired from 
all connection with railroad matters, and has since devoted 
himself to historical and literary pursuits. In 1882 he was 
elected a member of the board of overseers of Harvard uni- 
versity, and re-elected in 1888. In connection with his brother, 
Henry Adams, he prepared " Chapters of Erie and other Es- 
says " (Boston, 1871). He subsequently published a treatise 
entitled "Railroads; their Origin and Problems" (New York, 
1878); a work on "Railroad Accidents" (1879); "Life of 
Richard H. Dana (Boston, 1890); "Three Episodes in Massa- 
chusetts History " (1892) ; and " Massachusetts : Its Histori- 
ans and its History " (1893). He has also delivered a number 
of occasional addresses, and been a frequent contributor to 
the North American Review, the Forum, and the Proceedings of 
the Massachusetts Historical Society, in which last he has printed 
several monographs on historical subjects. 

Henry, author, another son of Charles Francis Adams, born 
in Boston, 16 Feb., 1838. He was graduated at Harvard in 
1858, and was his father's private secretary in London from 
1861 to 1868. From 1870 till 1877 he was assistant professor 
of history in Harvard college, and was one of the ablest m- 
structors the university has known during the present gener- 
ation, possessing to an extraordinary degree the power of 
inciting his pupils to original work. He again resided in Lon- 
don for a few years, and is now living in Washington. He 
has published "Essays in Anglo-Saxon Law " (Boston, 1876); 
"Documents relating to New England Federalism, 1800-1815 " 
(1877) ; " Life of Albert Gallatin " (Philadelphia, 1879) ; " Writ- 
ings of Albert Gallatin," edited (3 vols., 1879); "John Ran- 
dolph!' (Boston, 1882), and "History of the United States 
during the Administrations of Jefferson and Madison," 9 vols. 
(New York, 1889-1891). 

Brooks, lawyer, youngest son of Charles Francis Adams, 
born in Quincy, Mass., 24 June, 1848, graduated at Harvard 
university in 1870, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 
1873. He has published articles in the "Atlantic Monthly" 
and other periodicals, and is the author of " The Emancipation 
of Massachusetts" (Boston, 1886). 





D.'uppleton 8; Co 



ANDREW JACKSON. 

Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States, 
born in the Waxhaw settlement on the border between North 
and South Carolina, 15 March, 1767 ; died at the Hermitage, 
near Nashville, Tenn., 8 June, 1845. His father, Andrew Jack- 
son, came over from Carrickfergus, on the north coast of Ire- 
land, in 1765. His grandfather, Hugh Jackson, had been a 
linen-draper. His mother's name was Elizabeth Hutchinson, 
and her family were linen-weavers. Andrew Jackson, the 
father, died a few days before the birth of his son. The log 
cabin in which the future president was born was situated 
within a quarter of a mile of the boundary between the two 
Carolinas, and the people of the neighborhood do not seem to 
have had a clear idea as to which province it belonged. In a 
letter of 24 Dec, 1830, in the proclamation addressed to the 
nullifiers, in 1832, and again in his will. Gen. Jackson speaks of 
himself as a native of South Carolina ; but the evidence adduced 
by Parton seems to show that the birthplace was north of the 
border. Three weeks after the birth of her son Mrs. Jackson 
moved to the house of her brother-in-law, Mr. Crawford, just 
over the border in South Carolina, near the Waxhaw creek, and 
there his early years were passed. His education, obtained in 
an "old-field school," consisted of little more than the " three ^ 
R's," and even in that limited sphere his attainments were but 
scanty. He never learned, in the course of his life, to write 
English correctly. His career as a fighter began early. In the 
spring and early summer of 1780, after the disastrous surrender 
of Lincoln's army at Charleston, the whole of South Carolina 
was overrun by the British. On 6 Aug. Jackson was present 
at Hanging Rock when Sumter surprised and destroyed a 
British regiment. Two of his brothers, as well as his mother, 
died from hardships sustained in the war. In after years he 



138 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

could remember how he had been carried as prisoner to Cam- 
den and nearly starved there, and how a brutal officer had cut 
him with a sword because he refused to clean his boots ; these 
reminiscences kept alive his hatred for the British, and doubt- 
less gave unction to the tremendous blow dealt them at New 
Orleans. In 1781, left quite alone in the world, he was appren- 
ticed for a while to a saddler. At one time he is said to have 
done a little teaching in an " old-field school." At the age of 
eighteen he entered the law-office of Spruce McCay, in Salis- 
bury. While there he was said to have been " the most roar- 
ing, rollicking, gamecocking, horse-racing, card-playing, mis- 
chievous fellow" that had ever been seen in that town. Many 
and plentiful were the wild-oat crops sown at that time and in 
that part of the country ; and in such sort of agriculture young 
Jackson was much more proficient than in the study of juris- 
prudence. He never had a legal tone of mind, or any but the 
crudest knowledge of law ; but in that frontier society a small 
amount of legal knowledge went a good way, and in 1788 he 
was appointed public prosecutor for the western district of 
North Carolina, the district since erected into the state of 
Tennessee. The emigrant wagon-train in which Jackson jour- 
neyed to Nashville carried news of the ratification of the Fed- 
eral constitution by the requisite two thirds of the states. He 
seems soon to have found business enough. In the April term 
of 1790, out of 192 cases on the dockets of the county court at 
Nashville, Jackson was employed as counsel in 42 ; in the year 
1794, out of 397 cases he acted as counsel in 228 ; while at the 
same time he was practising his profession in the courts of 
other counties. The great number of these cases is an indica- 
tion of their trivial character. As a general rule they were 
either actions growing out of disputed land-claims or simple 
cases of assault and battery. Court day was a great occasion 
in that wild community, bringing crowds of men into the 
county town to exchange gossip, discuss politics, drink whis- 
key, and break heads. Probably each court day produced as 
many new cases as it settled. Amid such a turbulent popula- 
tion the public prosecutor must needs be a man of nerve and 
resource. It was a state of chronic riot, in which he must be 
ever ready to court danger. Jackson proved himself quite 
equal to the task of introducing law and order in so far as 
it depended on him. " Just inform Mr. Jackson," said Gov. 



A NDRE W J A CKSON. \ 39 

Blount when sundry malfeasances were reported to him ; " he 
will be sure to do his duty, and the offenders will be punished." 
Besides the lawlessness of the white pioneer population, there 
was the enmity of the Indians to be reckoned with. In the im- 
mediate neighborhood of Nashville the Indians murdered, on 
the average, one person every ten days. From 1788 till 1795 
Jackson performed the journey of nearly two hundred miles 
between Nashville and Jonesboro twenty-two times; and on 
these occasions there were many alarms from Indians, which 
sometimes grew into a forest campaign. In one of these 
affairs, having nearly lost his life in an adventurous feat, Jack- 
son made the characteristic remark : " A miss is as good as a 
mile; you see how near I can graze danger." It was this wild 
experience that prepared the way for Jackson's eminence as an 
Indian-fighter. In the autumn of 1794 the Cherokees were so 
thoroughly punished by Gen. Robertson's famous Nickajack 
expedition that henceforth they thought it best to leave the 
Tennessee settlements in peace. With the rapid increase of 
the white population which soon followed, the community be- 
came more prosperous and more orderly. In the general pros- 
perity Jackson had an ample share, partly through the diligent 
practice of his profession, partly through judicious purchases 
and sales of land. 

With most men marriage is the most important event of 
their life ; in Jackson's career his marriage was peculiarly im- 
portant. Rachel Donelson was a native of North Carolina, 
daughter of Col. John Donelson, a Virginia surveyor in good 
circumstances, who in 1780 migrated to the neighborhood of 
Nashville in a very remarkable boat-journey of 2,000 miles 
down the Holston and Tennessee rivers and up the Cumber- 
land. During an expedition to Kentucky some time afterward, 
the blooming Rachel was wooed and won by Capt. Lewis 
Robards. She was an active, sprightly, and interesting girl, 
the best horsewoman and best dancer in that country ; her 
husband seems to have been a young man of tyrannical and 
unreasonably jealous disposition. In Kentucky they lived with 
Mrs. Robards, the husband's mother ; and, as was common in 
a new society where houses were too few and far between, there 
were other boarders in the family — among them the late Judge 
Overton, of Tennessee, and a Mr. Stone. Presently Robards 
made complaints against his wife, in which he implicated Stone. 



I40 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



According to Overton and the elder Mrs. Robards, these com- 
plaints were unreasonable and groundless, but the affair ended 
in Robards sending his wife home to her mother in Tennessee. 
This was in 1788. Col. Donelson had been murdered, either by 
Indians or by white desperadoes, and his widow, albeit in easy 
circumstances, felt it desirable to keep boarders as a means of 
protection against the Indians. To her house came Andrew 
Jackson on his arrival at Nashville, and thither about the same 
time came Overton, also fresh from his law studies. These two 
young men were boarded in the house and lodged in a cabin 
hard by. At about the same time Robards became reconciled 
with his wife, and, having bought land in the neighborhood, 
came to dwell for a while at Mrs. Donelson's. Throughout life 
Jackson was noted alike for spotless purity and for a romantic 
and chivalrous respect for the female sex. In the presence of 
women his manner was always distinguished for grave and 
courtly politeness. This involuntary homage to woman was 
one of the finest and most winsome features in his character. 
As unconsciously rendered to Mrs. Robards, it was enough to 
revive the slumbering demon of jealousy in her husband. 
According to Overton's testimony, Jackson's conduct was irre- 
proachable, but there were high words between him and Ro- 
bards, and, not wishing to make further trouble, he changed his 
place of abode. After some months Capt. Robards left his 
wife and went to Kentucky, threatening by and by to return 
and "haunt her" and make her miserable. In the autumn of 
1790 rumors of his intended return frightened Mrs. Robards, 
and determined her to visit some friends at distant Natchez in 
order to avoid him. In pursuance of this plan, with which the 
whole neighborhood seems to have concurred, she went down 
the river in company with the venerable Col. Stark and his 
family. As the Indians were just then on the war-path, Jack- 
son accompanied the party with an armed escort, returning to 
Nashville as soon as he had seen his friends safely deposited 
at Natchez. While these things were going on, the proceed- 
ings of Capt. Robards were characterized by a sort of Machia- 
velian astuteness. In 1791 Kentucky was still a part of Vir- 
gmia, and, according to the code of the Old Dominion, if a hus- 
band wished to obtain a divorce on account of his wife's alleged 
unfaithfulness, he must procure an act of the legislature em- 
powering him to bring the case before a jury, and authorizing 



A NDRE W J A CKSON. 1 4 j 

a divorce conditionally upon the jury's finding a verdict of 
guilty. Early in 1791 Robards obtained the preliminary act of 
the legislature upon his declaration, then false, that his wife 
had gone to live with Jackson. Robards deferred further ac- 
tion for more than two years. Meanwhile it was reported and 
believed in the west that a divorce had been granted, and, act- 
ing upon this report, Jackson, whose chivalrous interest in 
Mrs. Robards's misfortunes had ripened into sincere affection, 
went, in the summer of 1791, to Natchez and married her there, 
and brought her to his home at Nashville. In the autumn of 
1793 Capt. Robards, on the strength of the facts that undeni- 
ably existed since the act of the Virginia legislature, brought 
his case into court and obtained the verdict completing the 
divorce. On hearmg of this, to his great surprise, in Decem- 
ber, Jackson concluded that the best method of preventing 
future cavil was to procure a new license and have the mar- 
riage ceremony performed again ; and this was done in Janu- 
ary. Jackson was certainly to blame for not taking more care 
to ascertain the import of the act of the Virginia legislature. 
By a carelessness peculiarly striking in a lawyer, he allowed his 
wife to be placed in a false position. The irregularity of the 
marriage was indeed atoned by forty years of honorable and 
happy wedlock, ending only with Mrs. Jackson's death in De- 
cember, 1828; and no blame was attached to the parties in 
Nashville, where the circumstances were well known. But the 
story, half understood and maliciously warped, grew into scan- 
dal as it was passed about among Jackson's personal enemies 
or political opponents; and herein some of the bitterest of his 
many quarrels had their source. His devotion to Mrs. Jackson 
was intense, and his pistol was always ready for the rash man 
who should dare to speak of her slightingly. 

In January, 1796, we find Jackson sitting in the conven- 
tion assembled at Knoxville for making a constitution for 
Tennessee, and tradition has it that he proposed the name of 
the " Great Crooked River " as the name for the new state. 
Among the rules adopted by the convention, one is quaintly 
significant : " He that digresseth from the subject to fall on 
the person of any member shall be suppressed by the speaker." 
The admission of Tennessee to the Union was effected in June, 
1796, in spite of earnest opposition from the Federalists, and 
in the autumn Jackson was chosen as the single representative 



142 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



in congress. When the house had assembled, he heard Presi- 
dent Washmgton deliver in person his last message to congress. 
He was one of twelve who voted against the adoption of the 
address to Washington in approval of his administration. 
Jackson's chief objections to Washington's government were 
directed against two of its most salutary and admirable acts — 
the Jay treaty with Great Britain, and Hamilton's financial 
measures. His feeling toward the Jay treaty was that of a 
man who could not bear to see anything but blows dealt to 
Great Britain. His condemnation of Hamilton's policy was 
mingled with the not unreasonable feeling of distrust which he 
had already begun to harbor against a national bank. The 
year 1797 was a season of financial depression, and the general 
paralysis of business was ascribed — no doubt too exclusively — 
to the over-issue of notes by the national bank. Jackson's 
antipathy to such an institution would seem to have begun 
thus early to show itself. Of his other votes in this congress, 
one was for an appropriation to defray the expenses of Sevier's 
expedition against the Cherokees, which was carried ; three 
others were eminently wise and characteristic of the man : i. 
For finishing the three frigates then building and destined 
to such renown — the "Constitution," "Constellation," and 
"United States." 2. Against the further payment of black- 
mail to Algiers. 3. Against removing " the restriction which 
confined the expenditure of public money to the specific objects 
for which each sum was appropriated." Another vote, silly in 
itself, was characteristic of the representative from a rough 
frontier community; it was against the presumed extravagance 
of appropriating $14,000 to buy furniture for the newly built 
White House. Jackson's course was warmly approved by his 
constituents, and in the following summer he was chosen to fill 
a vacancy in the Federal senate. Of his conduct as senator 
nothing is known beyond the remark, made by Jefferson in 
1824 to Daniel Webster, that he had often, when presiding in 
the senate, seen the passionate Jackson get up to speak and 
then choke with rage so that he could not utter a word. As 
Parton very happily suggests, one need not wonder at this if 
one remembers what was the subject chiefly before the senate 
during the winter of i797-'8. The outrageous insolence of the 
French Directory was enough to arouse the wrath of far tamer 
and less patriotic spirits than Jackson's. Yet in a letter writ- 



A NDRE W J A CKSON. 1 43 

ten at that time he seems eager to see the British throne over- 
turned by Bonaparte. In April, 1798, he resigned his seat in 
the senate, and was appomted judge in the supreme court of 
Tennessee. He retained this office for six years, but nothing 
is known of his decisions, as the practice of recording de- 
cisions began only with his successor, Judge Overton. During 
this period he was much harassed by business troubles arising 
from the decline in the value of land consequent upon the 
financial crisis of 1798. At length, in 1804, he resigned his 
judgeship in order to devote his attention exclusively to his 
private affairs. He paid up all his debts, and engaged exten- 
sively both in planting and in trade. He was noted for fair 
and honorable dealing, his credit was always excellent, and a 
note with his name on it was considered as good as gold. He 
had a clear head for business, and was never led astray by the 
delusions about paper money by which American frontier com- 
munities have so often been infected. His plantation was well 
managed, and his slaves kindly and considerately treated. 

But while genial and kind toward his inferiors, he was 
among his fellow-citizens apt to be rough and quarrelsome. 
In 1795 he fought a duel with Avery, an opposing counsel, 
over some hasty words that had passed in the court-room. 
Next year he quarrelled with John Sevier, governor of Ten- 
nessee, and came near shooting him "at sight." Sevier had 
alluded to the circumstances of his marriage. Ten years after- 
ward, for a similar offence, though complicated with other 
matters in the course of a long and extremely silly quarrel, he 
fought a duel with Charles Dickinson. The circumstances 
were revolting, but showed Jackson's wonderful nerve and 
rare skill in " grazing danger." Dickinson was killed, and 
Jackson received a wound from the effects of which he never 
recovered. In later years, when he was a candidate for the 
presidency, the number of his violent quarrels was variously 
reckoned by his enemies at from a dozen to a hundred. In 1805 
Jackson was visited by Aaron Burr, who was then preparing 
his mysterious southwestern expedition. Burr seems to have 
wished, if possible, to make use of Jackson's influence in rais- 
ing troops, but without indicating his purpose. In this he 
was unsuccessful, but Jackson appears to have regarded the 
charge of treason brought against Burr as ill-founded. At 
Richmond, while Burr's trial was going on, Jackson made a 



144 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



speech attacking Jefferson. He thus made himself obnoxious 
to Madison, then secretary of state, and afterward, in 1808, he 
declared his preference for Monroe over Madison as candidate 
for the presidency. He was known as unfriendly to Madison's 
administration, but this did not prevent him from offering his 
services, with those of 2,500 men, as soon as war was declared 
against Great Britain in 1812. Since 1801 he had been com- 
mander-in-chief of the Tennessee militia, but there had been 
no occasion for him to take the field. Late in 1812, after the 
disasters in the northwest, it was feared that the British might 
make an attempt upon New Orleans, and Jackson was ordered 
down to Natchez, at the head of 2,000 men. He went in high 
spirits, promising to plant the American eagle upon the ram- 
parts of Mobile, Pensacola, and St. Augustine, if so directed. 
On 6 Feb., as it had become evident that the British were not 
meditating a southward expedition, the new secretary of war, 
Armstrong, sent word to Jackson to disband his troops. This 
stupid order reached the general at Natchez toward the end 
of March, and inflamed his wrath. He took upon himself the 
responsibility of marching his men home in a body, an act in 
which the government afterward acquiesced and reimbursed 
Jackson for the expense involved. During this march Jackson 
became the idol of his troops, and his sturdiness won him the 
nickname of " Old Hickory," by which he was affectionately 
known among his friends and followers for the rest of his life. 

Shortly after his arrival at Nashville there occurred an 
affray between Jackson and Thomas H. Benton, growing out 
of an unusually silly duel in which Jackson had acted as second 
to the antagonist of Benton's brother. In a tavern at Nash- 
ville, Jackson undertook to horsewhip Benton, and in the en- 
suing scufile the latter was pitched down-stairs, while Jackson 
got a bullet in his left shoulder which he carried for more than 
twenty years. Jackson and Benton had formerly been friends. 
After this affair they did not meet again until 1823, when both 
were in the U. S. senate. Their friendship was then renewed. 

The war with Great Britain was complicated with an Indian 
war which could not in any case have been avoided. The west- 
ward progress of the white settlers toward the Mississippi river 
was gradually driving the red man from his hunting-grounds; 
and the celebrated Tecumseh had formed a scheme, quite simi- 
lar to that of Pontiac fifty years earlier, of uniting all the 



A NDRE I V J A CKSON. 1 4 5 

tribes between Florida and the Great Lakes in a grand attempt 
to drive back the white men. This scheme was partially frus- 
trated in the autuma of 181 1 while Tecumseh was preaching 
his crusade among the Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles. 
During his absence his brother, known as the Prophet, attacked 
Gen. Harrison at Tippecanoe and was overwhelmingly de- 
feated. The war with Great Britain renewed Tecumseh's op- 
portunity, and his services to the enemy were extremely valu- 
able until his death in the battle of the Thames. Tecumseh's 
principal ally in the south was a half-breed Creek chieftain 
named Weathersford. On the shore of Lake Tensaw, in the 
southern part of what is now Alabama, was a stockaded fortress 
known as Fort Mimms. There many of the settlers had taken 
refuge. On 30 Aug., 1813, this stronghold was surprised by 
Weathersford at the head of 1,000 Creek warriors, and more 
than 400 men, women, and children were massacred. The news 
of this dreadful affair aroused the people of the southwest to 
vengeance. Men and money were raised by the state of Ten- 
nessee, and, before he had fully recovered from the wound 
received in the Benton affray, Jackson took the field at the 
head of 2,500 men. Now for the first time he had a chance to 
show his wonderful military capacity, his sleepless vigilance, 
untiring patience, and unrivalled talent as a leader of men. 
The difificulties encountered were formidable in the extreme. 
In that frontier wilderness the business of the commissariat 
was naturally ill managed, and the men, who under the most 
favorable circumstances had little idea of military subordina- 
tion, were part of the time mutinous from hunger. More than 
once Jackson was obliged to use one half of his army to keep 
the other half from disbanding. In view of these difificulties, 
the celerity of his movements and the force with which he 
struck the enemy were truly marvellous. The Indians were 
defeated at Talluschatches and Talladega. At length, on 27 
March, 1814, having been re-enforced by a regiment of U. S. 
infantry, Jackson .struck the decisive blow at Tohopeka, other- 
wise known as the Horseshoe Bend of the Tallapoosa river. 
In this bloody battle no quarter was given, and the strength 
of the Creek nation was finally broken. Jackson pursued the 
remnant to their place of refuge called the Holy Ground, 
upon which the medicine-men had declared that no white man 
could set foot and live. Such of the Creek chieftains as had 



146 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 




not fled to Florida now surrendered. The American soldiers 
were ready to kill Weathersford in revenge for Fort Mimms; 
but Jackson, who was by no means wanting in magnanimity, 
spared his life and treated him so well that henceforth he and 
his people remained on good terms with the white men. 
Among the officers who served under Jackson in this remark- 
able campaign were two who in later years played an important 
part in the history of the southwest — Samuel Houston and 
David Crockett. The Creek war was one of critical impor- 
tance. It was the last occasion on which the red men could 
put forth sufificient power to embarrass the U. S. government. 

More than any other 
single battle that of 
Tohopeka marks the 
downfall of Indian 
power. Its immedi- 
ate effects upon the 
war with Great Brit- 
ain were very great. 
By destroying the 
only hostile power within the southwestern territory it made it 
possible to concentrate the military force of the border states 
upon any point, however remote, that might be threatened by 
the British. More specifically, it made possible the great vic- 
tory at New Orleans. Throughout the whole of this campaign, 
in which Jackson showed such indomitable energy, he was suf- 
fering from illness such as would have kept any ordinary man 
groaning in bed, besides that for most of the time his left arm 
had to be supported in a sling. The tremendous pluck ex- 
hibited by William of Orange at Neerwinden, and so justly 
celebrated by Macaulay, was no greater than Jackson showed 
in Alabama. His pluck was equalled by his thoroughness. 
Many generals after victory are inclined to relax their efforts. 
Not so Jackson, who followed up every success with furious 
persistence, and whose admirable maxim was that in war " until 
all is done, nothing is done." 

On 31 May, 1814, Jackson was made major-general in the 
regular army, and was appointed to command the Department 
of the South. It was then a matter of dispute whether Mobile 
belonged to Spain or to the United States. In August, Jack- 
son occupied the town and made his headquarters there. With 



A NDRE IV J A CKSON. 1 47 

the consent of Spain the British used Florida as a base of 
operations and established themselves at Pensacola. Jackson 
wrote to Washington for permission to attack them there ; but 
the government was loth to sanction an invasion of Spanish 
territory until the complicity of Spain with our enemy should 
be proved beyond cavil. The letter from Sec. Armstrong to 
this effect did not reach Jackson. The capture of Washington 
by the British prevented his receiving orders and left him to 
act upon his own responsibility, a kind of situation from which 
he was never known to flinch. 

On 14 Sept. the British advanced against Mobile; but in 
their attack upon the outwork, Fort Bowyer, they met with a 
disastrous repulse. They retreated to Pensacola, whither Jack- 
son followed them with 3,000 men. On 7 Nov. he stormed the 
town. His next move would have been against Fort Barran- 
cas, six miles distant at the mouth of the harbor. By capturing 
this post he would have entrapped the British fleet and might 
have forced it to surrender ; but the enemy forestalled him by 
blowing up the fort and beating a precipitate retreat. By thus 
driving the British from Florida — an act for which he was 
stupidly blamed by the Federalist press — Jackson now found 
himself free to devote all his energies to the task of defending 
New Orleans, and there, after an arduous journey, he arrived 
on 2 Dec. The British expedition directed against that city 
was more formidable than any other that we had to encounter 
during that war. Its purpose was also more deadly. In the 
north the British warfare had been directed chiefly toward de- 
fending Canada and gaining such a foothold upon our frontier 
as might be useful in making terms at the end of the war. 
The burning of Washington was intended chiefly for an insult, 
and had but slight military significance ; but the expedition 
against New Orleans was intended to make a permanent con- 
quest of the lower Mississippi valley and to secure for Great 
Britain the western bank of the river. The fall of Napoleon 
had set free some of Wellington's finest troops for service in 
America, and in December a force of 12,000 men, under com- 
mand of Wellington's brother-in-law, the gallant Sir Edward 
Pakenham, was landed below New Orleans. To oppose these 
veterans of the Spanish peninsula, Jackson had 6,000 of that 
sturdy race whose fathers had vanquished Ferguson at King's 
Mountain, and whose children so nearly vanquished Grant at 
II 



148 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

Shiloh. After considerable preliminary manoeuvring and skir- 
mishing, Jackson intrenched himself in a strong position near 
the Bienvenu and Chalmette plantations and awaited the ap- 
proach of the enemy. His headquarters, the McCarte mansion, 
are shown in the illustration on page 146. On 8 Jan., Paken- 
ham was unwise enough to try to overwhelm him by a direct 
assault. In less than half an hour the British were in full 
retreat, leavmg 2,600 of their number killed and wounded. 
Among the slain was Pakenham. The American loss was eight 
killed and thirteen wounded. Never, perhaps, in the history of 
the world has a battle been fought between armies of civilized 
men with so great a disparity of loss. It was also the most com- 
plete and overwhelming defeat that any English army has ever 
experienced. News travelled so slowly then that this great 
victory, like the three last naval victories of the war, occurred 
after peace had been made by the commissioners at Ghent. 
Nevertheless, no American can regret that the battle was 
fought. The insolence and rapacity of Great Britain had richly 
deserved such castigation. Moreover, if she once gained a 
foothold in the Mississippi valley, it might have taken an armed 
force to dislodge her in spite of the treaty, for in the matter of 
the western frontier posts after 1783 she had by no means acted 
in good faith Jackson's victory decided that henceforth the 
Mississippi valley belonged indisputably to the people of the 
United States. It was the recollection of that victory, along 
with the exploits of Hull and Decatur, Perry and McDonough, 
which caused the Holy Alliance to look upon the Monroe doc- 
trine as something more than an idle threat. All over the 
United States the immediate effect of the news was electric, 
and it was enhanced by the news of peace which arrived a few 
days later. By this " almost incredible victory," as the " Na- 
tional Intelligencer " called it, the credit of the American arms 
upon land was fully restored. Not only did the administration 
glory in it, as was natural, but the opposition lauded it for a 
different reason, as an example of what American military hero- 
ism could do in spite of inadequate support from government. 
Thus praised by all parties, Jackson, who before the Creek war 
had been little known outside of Tennessee, became at once the 
foremost man in the United States. People in the north, while 
throwing up their hats for him, were sometimes heard to ask : 
" Who is this Gen. Jackson ? To what state does he belong ? " 







^^^'^^-^e^^^y^ ^^^^^ 






^^^^ 



-c— ^ 







ANDRE W J A CKSON. I ^g 

Henceforth until the civil war he occupied the most prominent 
place in the popular mind. 

After his victory Jackson remained three months in New 
Orleans, in some conflict with the civil authorities of the town, 
which he found it necessary to hold under martial law. In 
April he returned to Nashville, still retaining his military com- 
mand of the southwest. He soon became involved in a quarrel 
with Mr. Crawford, the secretary of war, who had undertaken 
to modify some provisions in his treaty with the Creeks. Jack- 
son was also justly incensed by the occasional issue of orders 
from the war department directly to his subordinate officers; 
such orders sometimes stupidly thwarted his plans. The usual 
course for a commanding general thus annoyed would be to 
make a private representation to the government ; but here, as 
ordinarily, while quite right in his position, Jackson was violent 
and overbearing in his methods. He published, 22 April, 1817, 
an order forbidding his subordinate officers to pay heed to any 
order from the war department unless issued through him. 
Mr. Calhoun, who in October succeeded Crawford as secretary 
of war, gracefully yielded the point; but the public had mean- 
while been somewhat scandalized by the collision of authorities. 
In private conversation Gen. Scott had alluded to Jackson's 
conduct as savoring ot mutiny. This led to an angry corre- 
spondence between the two generals, ending in a challenge 
from Jackson, which Scott declined on the ground that duel- 
ling is a wicked and unchristian custom. 

Affairs in Florida now demanded attention. That country 
had become a nest of outlaws, and chaos reigned supreme 
there. Many of the defeated Creeks had found a refuge in 
Florida, and runaway negroes from the plantations of Georgia 
and South Carolina were continually escaping thither. During 
the late war British officers and adventurers, acting on their 
own responsibility upon this neutral soil, committed many acts 
which their government would never have sanctioned. They 
stirred up Indians and negroes to commit atrocities on the 
United States frontier. The Spanish government was at that 
time engaged in warfare with its revolted colonies in South 
America, and the coasts of Florida became a haunt for contra- 
band traders, privateers, and filibusters. One adventurer would 
announce his intention to make Florida a free republic ; another 
would go about committing robbery on his own account ; a third 



I50 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



would set up an agency for kidnapping negroes on speculation. 
The disorder was hideous. On the Appalachicola river the 
British had built a fort, and amply stocked it with arms and 
ammunition, to serve as a base of operations against the United 
States. On the departure of the British the fort was seized 
and held by negroes. This alarmed the slave-owners of Georgia, 
and in July, 1816, United States troops, with permission from 
the Spanish authorities, marched in and bombarded the negro 
fort. A hot shot found its way into the magazine, three hun- 
dred negroes were blown into fragments, and the fort was de- 
molished. In this case the Spaniards were ready to leave to 
United States troops a disagreeable work, for which their own 
force was incompetent. Every day made it plainer that Spain 
was quite unable to preserve order in Florida, and for this rea- 
son the United States entered upon negotiations for the pur- 
chase of that country. Meanwhile the turmoil increased. 
White men were murdered by Indians, and United States troops, 
under Col. Twiggs, captured and burned a considerable Semi- 
nole village, known as Fowltown. The Indians retorted by the 
massacre of fifty people who were ascending the Appalachicola 
river in boats ; some of the victims were tortured with fire- 
brands. Jackson was now ordered to the frontier. He wrote 
at once to President Monroe : " Let it be signified to me through 
any channel (say Mr. John Rhea) that the possession of the 
Floridas would be desirable to the United States, and in sixty 
days it will be accomplished." Mr. Rhea was a representative 
from Tennessee, a confidential friend of both Jackson and Mon- 
roe. The president was ill when Jackson's letter reached him, 
and does not seem to have given it due consideration. On re- 
ferring to it a year later he could not remember that he had 
ever seen it before. Rhea, however, seems to have written a 
letter to Jackson, telling him that the president approved of 
his suggestion. As to this point the united testimony of Jack- 
son, Rhea, and Judge Overton seems conclusive. Afterward 
Mr. Monroe, through Rhea, seems to have requested Jackson 
to burn this letter, and an entry on the general's letter-book 
shows that it was accordingly burned, 12 April, 1819. There 
can be no doubt that, whatever the president's intention may 
have been, or how far it may have been correctly interpreted 
by Rhea, the general honestly considered himself authorized to 
take possession of Florida on the ground that the Spanish gov- 



ANDRE W J A CKSON. 1 5 I 

ernment had shown itself incompetent to prevent the denizens 
of that country from engaging in hostilities against the United 
States. Jackson acted upon this belief with his accustomed 
promptness. He raised troops in Tennessee and neighboring 
states, invaded Florida in March, 1818, captured St. Marks, and 
pushed on to the Seminole headquarters on the Suwanee river. 
In less than three months from this time he had overthrown the 
Indians and brought order out of chaos. His measures were 
praised by his friends as vigorous, while his enemies stigma- 
tized them as high-handed. In one mstauce his conduct was 
open to serious question. At St. Marks his troops captured an 
aged Scotch trader and friend of the Indians, named Alexander 
Arbuthnot ; near Suwanee, some time afterward, they seized 
Robert Ambrister, a young English lieutenant of marines, 
nephew of the governor of New Providence. Jackson believed 
that these men had incited the Indians to make war upon the 
United States, and were now engaged in aiding and abetting 
them in their hostilities. They were tried by a court-martial 
at St. Marks. On very insufficient evidence Arbuthnot was 
found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. Appearances were 
somewhat more strongly against Ambrister. He did not make 
it clear what his business was in Florida, and threw himself 
upon the mercy of the court, which at first condemned him to 
be shot, but on further consideration commuted the sentence to 
fifty lashes and a year's imprisonment. Jackson arbitrarily re- 
vived the first sentence, and Ambrister was accordingly shot. 
A few minutes afterward Arbuthnot was hanged from the yard- 
arm of his own ship, declaring with his last breath that his 
country would avenge him. In this lamentable affair Jackson 
doubtless acted from a sense of duty ; as he himself said, " My 
God would not have smiled on me, had I punished only the 
poor ignorant savages, and spared the white men who set them 
on." Here, as elsewhere, however, when under the influence of 
strong feeling, he showed himself utterly incapable of estimat- 
ing evidence. The case against both the victims was so weak 
that a fair-minded and prudent commander would surely have 
pardoned them ; while the interference with the final sentence of 
the court, in Ambrister's case, was an act that can hardly be jus- 
tified. Throughout life Jackson was perpetually acting with 
violent energy upon the strength of opinions hastily formed 
and based upon inadequate data. Fortunately, his instincts 



152 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



were apt to be sound, and in many most important instances 
his violent action was highly beneficial to his country; but a 
man of such temperament is liable to make serious mistakes. 

On his way home, hearing that some Indians had sought 
refuge in Pensacola, Jackson captured the town, turned out the 
Spanish governor, and left a garrison of his own there. He 
had now virtually conquered Florida, but he had moved too 
fast for the government at Washington. He had gone further, 
perhaps, than was permissible in trespassing upon neutral terri- 
tory ; and his summary execution of two British subjects 
aroused furious excitement in England. For a moment we 
seemed on the verge of war with Great Britain and Spain at 
once. Whatever authority President Monroe may have intend- 
ed, through the Rhea letter, to confer upon Jackson, he certainly 
felt that the general had gone too far. With one exception, all 
his cabinet agreed with him that it would be best to disavow 
Jackson's acts and make reparation for them. But John Quincy 
Adams, secretary of state, felt equal to the task of dealing 
with the two foreign powers, and upon his advice the adminis- 
tration decided to assume the responsibility for what Jackson 
had done. Pensacola and St. Marks were restored to Spain, 
and an order of Jackson's for the seizing of St. Augustine was 
countermanded by the president. But Adams represented to 
Spain that the American general, in his invasion of Florida, 
was virtually assisting the Spanish government in maintaining 
order there; and to Great Britain he justified the execution of 
Arbuthnot and Ambrister on the ground that their conduct had 
been such that they had forfeited their allegiance and become 
virtual outlaws. Spain and Great Britain accepted the expla- 
nations ; had either nation felt in the mood for war with the 
United States, it might have been otherwise. As soon as the 
administration had adopted Jackson's measures, they were for 
that reason attacked in Congress by Clay, and this was the 
beginning of the bitter and lifelong feud between Jackson 
and Clay. In 1819 the purchase of Florida from Spain was 
effected, and in 1821 Jackson was appointed governor of that 
territory. In 1823 he was elected to the U. S. senate. Some 
of his friends, under the lead of William B. Lewis, had already 
conceived the idea of making him president. At first Gen. 
Jackson cast ridicule upon the idea. " Do they suppose," said 
he, " that I am such a d — d fool as to think myself fit for presi- 



A NDRE IV J A CKSON. I 5 ^ 

dent of the United States ? No, sir, I know what I am fit for. 
I can command a body of men in a rough way, but I am not fit 
to be president." Such is the anecdote told by H. M. Bracken- 
ridge, who was Jackson's secretary in Florida. In 1821 the 
general felt old and weak, and had made up his mind to spend 
his remaining days in peace on his farm. Of personal ambi- 
tion, as ordinarily understood, Jackson had much less than 
many other men. But he was, like most men, susceptible to 
flattery, and the discovery of his immense popularity no doubt 
went far to persuade him that he might do credit to himself as 
president. On 20 July, 1822, he was nominated for that office 
by the legislature of Tennessee. On 22 Feb., 1824, he was nomi- 
nated by a Federalist convention at Harrisburg, Pa., and on 4 
March following by a Republican convention at the same place. 
The regular nominee of the congressional caucus was William H. 
Crawford, of Georgia. The other candidates were John Quincy 
Adams and Henry Clay, There was a general agreement upon 
Calhoun for the vice-presidency. All the candidates belonged 
to the Republican party, which had kept the presidency since 
Jefferson's election in 1800. The Federalists were hopelessly 
discredited by their course in the war of i8i2-'i5. Of the four 
candidates Adams and Clay were loose constructionists, while 
Crawford and Jackson were strict constructionists, and in this 
difference was foreshadowed a new division of parties. At 
the election in November, 1824, there were 99 electoral votes 
for Jackson, 84 for Adams, 41 for Crawford, and 37 for Clay. 
As none of the candidates had a majority, it was left for the 
house of representatives to choose a president from the three 
highest names on the list, in accordance with the twelfth 
amendment to the constitution. As Clay was thus rendered 
ineligible, there was naturally some scheming among the friends 
of the other candidates to secure his powerful co-operation. 
Clay and his friends quite naturally supported the other loose- 
constructionist candidate, Adams, with the result that 13 states 
voted for Adams, 7 for Jackson, and 4 for Crawford. Adams 
thus became president, and Jackson's friends, in their disap- 
pointment, hungered for a " grievance " upon which they might 
vent their displeasure, and which might serve as a "rallying 
cry " for the next campaign. Benton, who was now one of 
Jackson's foremost supporters, went so far as to maintain that, 
because Jackson had a greater number of electoral votes than 



154 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

any other candidate, the house was virtually "defying the will 
of the people " in choosing any name but his. To this it was 
easily answered that in any case our electoral college, which 
was one of the most deliberately framed devices of the consti- 
tution, gives but a very indirect and partial expression of the 
" will of the people " ; and furthermore, if Benton's argument 
was sound, why should the constitution have provided for an 
election by congress, instead of allowing a simple plurality in 
the college to decide the election ? The extravagance of Ben- 
ton's objection, coming from so able a source, is an index to 
the bitter disappointment of Jackson's followers. The needed 
" grievance " was furnished when Adams selected Clay as his 
secretary of state. Many of Jackson's friends mterpreted this 
appointment as the result of a bargain whereby Clay had made 
Adams president in consideration of obtaining the first place in 
the cabinet, carrying with it. according to the notion then preva- 
lent, a fair prospect of the succession to the presidency. It 
was natural enough for the friends of a disappointed candidate 
to make such a charge. It was to Benton's credit that he al- 
ways scouted the idea of a corrupt bargain between Adams and 
Clay. Many people, however, believed it. In congress, John 
Randolph's famous allusion to the "coalition between Blifil and 
Black George — the Puritan and the blackleg" — led to a duel 
between Randolph and Clay, which served to impress the mat- 
ter upon the popular mind without enlightening it ; the pistol 
is of small value as an agent of enlightenment. The charge 
was utterly without support and in every way improbable. The 
excellence, of the appointment of Clay was beyond cavil, and 
the sternly upright Adams was less influenced by what people 
might think of his actions than any other president since Wash- 
ington. But the appointment was no doubt ill-considered. It 
made it necessary for Clay, in many a public speech, to defend 
himself against the cruel imputation. To mention the charge 
to Jackson, whose course in Florida had been severely censured 
by Clay, was enough to make him believe it ; and he did so to 
his dying day. 

It is not likely that the use made of this "grievance " had 
much to do with Jackson's victory in 1828. The causes at 
work lay far deeper. The population west of the Alleghanies 
was now beginning to count for much in politics. Jackson was 
our first western president, and his election marks the rise of 



ANDRE IV JACKSON. jce 

that section of our country. The democratic tendency was 
moreover a growing one. Heretofore our presidents had been 
men of aristocratic type, with advantages of wealth, or educa- 
tion, or social training. A stronger contrast to them than Jack- 
son afforded cannot well be imagined. A man with less train- 
ing in statesmanship would have been hard to find. In his de- 
fects he represented average humanity, while his excellences 
were such as the most illiterate citizen could appreciate. In 
such a man the ploughboy and the blacksmith could feel that 
in some essential respects they had for president one of their 
own sort. Above all, he was the great military hero of the day, 
and as such he came to the presidency as naturally as Taylor 
and Grant in later days, as naturally as his contemporary Wel- 
lington became prime minister of England. A man far more 
politic and complaisant than Adams could not have won the 
election of 1828 against such odds. He obtained 83 electoral 
votes against. 178 for Jackson. Calhoun was re-elected vice- 
president. Jackson came to the presidency with a feeling that 
he had at length succeeded in making good his claim to a vio- 
lated right, and he showed this feeling in his refusal to call on 
his illustrious predecessor, who he declared had got the presi- 
dency by bargain and sale. 

In Jackson's cabinet, as first constituted, Martin Van Buren, 
of New York, was secretary of state ; Samuel D. Ingham, of 
Pennsylvania, secretary of the treasury ; John H. Eaton, of 
Tennessee, secretary of war ; John Branch, of North Carolina, 
secretary of the navy ; John M. Berrien, of Georgia, attorney- 
general ; William T. Barry, of Kentucky, postmaster-general. 
As compared with earlier cabinets — not merely with such men 
as Hamilton, Madison, or Gallatin, but with Pickering, Wolcott, 
Monroe, or even Crawford — these were obscure names. The 
innovation in the personal character of the cabinet was even 
more marked than the innovation in the presidency. The au- 
tocratic Jackson employed his secretaries as clerks. His con- 
fidential advisers were a few intimate friends who held no im- 
portant oiifices. These men — William B. Lewis, Amos Kendall, 
Duff Green, and Isaac Hill — came to be known as the " kitchen 
cabinet." Lewis had had much to do with bringing Jackson 
forward as a candidate for the presidency in 182 1. Green and 
Hill were editors of partisan newspapers. Kendall was a man 
of considerable ability and many good qualities, but a " machine 



156 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



politician " of the worst sort. He was on many occasions the 
ruling spirit of the administration, and the cause of some of its 
most serious mistakes. Jackson's career as president cannot 
be fully understood without taking mto account the agency of 
Kendall ; yet it is not always easy to assign the character and 
extent of the influence which he exerted. 

A yet more notable innovation was Jackson's treatment of 
the civil service. The earlier presidents had proceeded upon 
the theory that public office is a public trust, and not a reward 
for partisan services. They conducted the business of govern- 
ment upon business principles, and as long as a postmaster 
showed himself efficient in distributing the mail they did not 
turn him out of office because of his vote. Between 30 April, 
1789, and 4 March, 1829, the total number of removals from 
office was seventy-four, and out of this number five were de- 
faulters. Between 4 March, 1829, and 22 March, 1830, the 
number of changes made in the civil service was about 2,000. 
This was the inauguration upon a national scale of the so-called 
" spoils system." The phrase originated with William L. Marcy, 
of New York, who in a speech in the senate in 1831 declared 
that " to the victors belong the spoils." The system had been 
perfected in the state politics of New York and Pennsylvania, 
and it was probably inevitable that it should sooner or later be 
introduced uito the sphere of national politics. The way was 
prepared in 1820 by Crawford, when he succeeded in getting 
the law passed that limits the tenure of office to four years. 
This dangerous measure excited very little discussion at the 
time. People could not understand the evil until taught by 
hard experience. Jackson did not understand that he was lay- 
ing the foundations of a gigantic system of corruption, which 
within a few years would develop into the most serious of the 
dangers threatening the continuance of American freedom. 
He was very ready to believe ill of political opponents, and 
to make generalizations from extremely inadequate data. 
Democratic newspapers, while the campaign frenzy was on 
them, were full of windy declamation about the wholesale cor- 
ruption introduced into all parts of the government by Adams 
and Clay. Nothing was too bad for Jackson to believe of these 
two men, and when the fourth auditor of the treasury was 
found to be delinquent in his accounts it was easy to suppose 
that many others were, in one way or another, just as bad. In 



ANDREW JACKSON. 1 57 

his wholesale removals Jackson doubtless supposed he was do- 
ing the country a service by "turning the rascals out." The 
immediate consequence of this demoralizing policy was a strug- 
gle for control of the patronage between Calhoun and Van 
Buren, who were rival aspirants for the succession to the presi- 
dency. A curious affair now came in to influence Jackson's 
personal relations to these men. Early in 1829 Eaton, secre- 
tary of war, married a Mrs. Timberlake, with whose reputation 
gossip had been busy. It was said that he had shown her too 
much attention during the lifetime of her first husband. Jack- 
son was always slow to believe charges against a woman. His 
own wife, who had been outrageously maligned by the Whig 
newspapers during the campaign, had lately died, and there 
was just enough outward similarity between Eaton's marriage 
and his own to make him take Mrs. Eaton's part with more 
than his customary vehemence. Mrs. Calhoun and the wives 
of the secretaries would not recognize Mrs. Eaton. Mrs, Don- 
elson, wife of the president's nephew, and mistress of ceremo- 
nies at the White House, took a similar stand. Jackson scolded 
his secretaries and sent Mrs. Donelson home to Tennessee; but 
all in vain. He found that vanquishing Wellington's veterans 
was a light task compared with that of contending against the 
ladies in an affair of this sort. Foremost among those who 
frowned Mrs. Eaton out of society was Mrs. Calhoun. On the 
other hand, Van Buren, a widower, found himself able to be 
somewhat more complaisant, and accordingly rose in Jackson's 
esteem. The fires were fanned by Lewis and Kendall, who saw 
in Van Buren a more eligible ally than Calhoun. Presently 
intelligence was obtained from Crawford, who hated Calhoun, 
to the effect that the latter, as member of Monroe's cabinet, 
had disapproved of Jackson's conduct in Florida. This was 
quite true, but Calhoun had discreetly yielded his judgment to 
that of the cabinet led by Adams, and thus had officially sanc- 
tioned Jackson's conduct. These facts, as handled by Eaton 
and Lewis, led Jackson to suspect Calhoun of treacherous 
double-dealing, and the result was a quarrel which broke up the 
cabinet. In order to get Calhoun's friends — Ingham, Branch, 
and Berrien — out of the cabinet, the other secretaries began by 
resigning. This device did not succeed, and the ousting of the 
three secretaries entailed further quarrelling, in the course of 
which the Eaton affair and the Florida business were beaten 



158 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



threadbare in the newspapers, and evoked sundry challenges to 
deadly combat. In the spring and summer of 183 1 the new 
cabinet was formed, consisting of Edward Livingston, secre- 
tary of state ; Louis McLane, treasury ; Lewis Cass, war; Levi 
Woodbury, navy ; Roger B. Taney, attorney-general ; in post- 
ofifice no change. On Van Buren's resignation, Jackson at once 
appointed him minister to England, but there was a warm dis- 
pute in the senate over his confirmation, and it was defeated 
at length by the casting-vote of Calhoun. This check only 
strengthened Jackson's determination to have Van Buren for 
his successor in the presidency. The progress of this quarrel 
entailed a break in the " kitchen cabinet," in which Duff Green, 
editor of the " Telegraph " and friend of Calhoun, was thrown 
out. His place was taken by Francis Preston Blair, of Ken- 
tucky, a man of eminent ability and earnest patriotism. To 
him and his sons, as energetic opponents of nullification and 
secession, our country owes a debt of gratitude which can 
hardly be overstated. Blair's indignant attitude toward nulli- 
fication brought him at once into earnest sympathy with Jack- 
son. In December, 1830, Blair began publishing the "Globe," 
the organ henceforth of Jackson's party. For a period of ten 
years, until the defeat of the Democrats in 1840, Blair and 
Kendall were the ruling spirits in the administration. Their 
policy was to re-elect Jackson to the presidency in 1832, and 
make Van Buren his successor in 1836. 

During Jackson's administration there came about a new 
division of parties. The strict constructionists, opposing inter- 
nal improvements, protective tariff, and national banks, retained 
the name of Democrats, which had long been applied to mem- 
bers of the old Republican party. The term Republican fell 
into disuse. The loose constructionists, under the lead of 
Clay, took the name of Whigs, as it suited their purposes to de- 
scribe Jackson as a kind of tyrant ; and they tried to dis- 
credit their antagonists by calling them Tories, but the device 
found little favor. On strict constructionist grounds Jackson 
in 1829 vetoed the bill for a government subscription to the 
stock of the Maysville turnpike in Kentucky, and two other 
similar bills he disposed of by a new method, which the W^higs 
indignantly dubbed a " pocket veto." The struggle over the 
tariff was especially important as bringing out a clear expres- 
sion of the doctrine of nullification on the part of South Caro- 



ANDREW JACKSON. 



'59 




His feelings toward Indians 



Una. Practically, however, nullification was first attempted by- 
Georgia in the case of the disputes with the Cherokee Indians. 
Under treaties with the Federal government these Indians oc- 
cupied lands that were coveted by the white people. Adams 
had made himself very unpopular in Georgia by resolutely de- 
fending the treaty rights of these Indians. Immediately upon 
Jackson's election, the state government assumed jurisdiction 
over their lands, and proceeded to legislate for them, passing 
laws that discriminated against 
them. Disputes at once arose, 
in the course of which Georgia 
twice refused to obey the su- 
preme court of the United 
States. At the request of the 
governor of Georgia, Jackson 
withdrew the Federal troops 
from the Cherokee country, and 
refused to enforce the rights 
that had been guaranteed to the 
Indians by the United States. 
were those of a frontier fighter, and he asked, with telling force, 
whether an eastern state, such as New York, would endure the 
nuisance of an independent Indian state within her own bound- 
aries. In his sympathy with the people of Georgia on the par- 
ticular question at issue, he seemed to be conniving at the dan- 
gerous principle of nullification. These events were carefully 
noted by the politicians of South Carolina. The protectionist 
policy, which since the peace of 1815 had been growing in favor 
at the north, had culminated in 1828 in the so-called "tariff of 
abominations." This tariff, the result of a wild helter-skelter 
scramble of rival interests, deserved its name on many accounts. 
It discriminated, with especial unfairness, against the southern 
people, who were very naturally and properly enraged by it. A 
new tariff, passed in 1832, modified some of the most objection- 
able features of the old one, but still failed of justice to the 
southerners. Jackson was opposed to the principle of protective 
tariffs, and from his course with Georgia it might be argued 
that he would not interfere with extreme measures on the part 
of the south. During the whole of Jackson's first term there 
was more or less vague talk about nullification. The subject 
had a way of obtruding itself upon all sorts of discussions, as 



l6o LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

in the famous debates on Foot's resolutions, which lasted over 
five months in 1830, and called forth Webster's immortal speech 
in reply to Hayne. A few weeks after this speech, at a public 
dmner in commemoration of Jefferson's birthday, after sundry 
regular toasts had seemed to indicate a drift of sentiment in 
approval of nullification, Jackson suddenly arose with a volun- 
teer toast : " Our Federal Union : it must be preserved." Cal- 
houn was prompt to reply with a toast and a speech in be- 
half of " Liberty, dearer than the Union," but the nullifiers 
were greatly disappointed and chagrined. In spite of this 
warning. South Carolina held a convention, 19 Nov., 1832, and 
declared the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 to be null and void in 
South Carolina ; all state officers and jurors were required to 
take an oath of obedience to this edict ; appeals to the Federal 
supreme court were prohibited under penalties ; and the Fed- 
eral government was warned that an attempt on its part to en- 
force the revenue laws would immediately provoke South Caro- 
lina to secede from the Union. The ordinance of nullification 
was to take effect on i Feb., 1833, and preparations for war were 
begun at once. On 16 Dec. the [)resident issued a proclamation, 
in which he declared that he should enforce the laws in spite of 
any and all resistance that might be made, and he showed that 
he was in earnest by forthwith sending Lieut. Farragut with a 
naval force to Charleston harbor, and ordering Gen. Scott to 
have troops ready to enter South Carolina if necessary. In the 
proclamation, which was written by Livingston, the president 
thus defined his position: "I consider the power to annul a law 
of the United States, assumed by one state, incompatible with 
the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter 
of the constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with 
every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the 
great object for which it was formed." Gov. Hayne, of South 
Carolina, issued a counter-proclamation, and a few days after- 
ward Calhoun resigned the vice-presidency, and was chosen to 
succeed Hayne in the senate. Jackson's determined attitude 
was approved by public opinion throughout the country. By 
the southern people generally the action of South Carolina was 
regarded as precipitate and unconstitutional. Even in that 
state a Union convention met at Columbia, and announced its 
intention of supporting the president. In January, Calhoun 
declared in the senate that his state was not hostile to the 



ANDREW JACKSON. l6i 

Union, and had not meditated an armed resistance ; a " peace- 
able secession," to be accomplished by threats, was probably 
the ultimatum really contemplated. In spite of Jackson's 
warning, the nullifiers were surprised by his unflinching atti- 
tude, and quite naturally regarded it as inconsistent with his 
treatment of Georgia. When the ist of February came the 
nullifiers deferred action. In the course of that month a bill 
for enforcing the tariff passed both houses of congress, and at 
the same time Clay's compromise tariff was adopted, providing 
for the gradual reduction of the duties until 1842, after which 
all duties were to be kept at 20 percent. This compromise en- 
abled the nullifiers to claim a victory, and retreat from their 
position with colors flying. 

During the nullification controversy Jackson kept up the at- 
tacks upon the United States bank which he had begun in his first 
annual message to congress in 1829. The charter of the bank 
would expire in 1836, and Jackson was opposed to its renewal. 
The grounds of his opposition were partly sound, partly fanci- 
ful. There was a wholesome opposition to paper currency, 
combined with great ignorance of the natural principles of 
money and trade, as illustrated in a willingness to tolerate 
the notes of local banks, according to the chaotic system preva- 
lent between Jackson's time and Lincoln's. There was some- 
thing of the demagogue's appeal to the prejudice that igno- 
rant people are apt to cherish against capitalists and corpo- 
rations, though Jackson cannot be accused of demagogy in this 
regard, because he shared the prejudice. Then there was good 
reason for believing that the bank was in some respects mis- 
managed, and for fearing that a great financial institution, so 
intimately related to the government, might be made an engine 
of political corruption. Furthermore, the correspondence be- 
tween Sec. Ingham and Nicholas Biddle, president of the bank, 
in the summer of 1829, shows that some of Jackson's friends 
wished to use the bank for political purposes, and were enraged 
at Biddle's determination in pursuing an independent course. 
The occasion was duly improved by the " kitchen cabinet " to 
fill Jackson's ears with stories tending to show that the influ- 
ence of the bank was secretly exerted in favor of the opposite 
party. Jackson's suggestions with reference to the bank in his 
first message met with little favor, especially as he coupled 
them with suggestions for the distribution of the surplus reve- 



1 62 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

nue among the states. He returned to the attack in his two 
following messages, until in 1832 the bank felt obliged in self- 
defence to apply, somewhat prematurely, for a renewal of its 
charter on the expiration of its term. Charges brought against 
the bank by Democratic representatives were investigated by a 
committee, which returned a majority report in favor of the 
bank. A minority report sustained the charges. After pro- 
longed discussion, the bill to renew the charter passed both 
houses, and on 10 July, 1832, was vetoed by the president. An 
attempt to pass the bill over the veto failed of the requisite 
two-third majority. 

Circumstances had already given a flavor of personal con- 
test to Jackson's assaults upon the bank. There was no man 
whom he hated so fiercely as Clay, who was at the same time 
his chief political rival. Clay made the mistake of forcing the 
bank question into the foreground, in the belief that it was an 
issue upon which he was likely to win in the coming presidential 
campaign. Clay's movement was an invitation to the people 
to defeat Jackson in order to save the bank ; and this naturally 
aroused all the combativeness in Jackson's nature. His deter- 
mined stand impressed upon the popular imagination the pic- 
ture of a dauntless " tribune of the people " fighting against the 
"monster monopoly." Clay unwisely attacked the veto power 
of the president, and thus gave Benton an opportunity to de- 
fend it by analogies drawn from the veto power of the ancient 
Roman tribune ; which in point of fact it does not at all re- 
semble. The discussion helped Jackson more than Clay. It 
was also a mistake on the part of the Whig leader to risk the 
permanence of such an institution as the U. S. bank upon the 
fortunes of a presidential canvass. It dragged the bank into 
politics in spite of itself, and, by thus affording justification for 
the fears to which Jackson had appealed, played directly into 
his hands. In this canvass all the candidates were for the first 
time nominated in national conventions. There were three 
conventions — all held at Baltimore In September, 1831, the 
Anti-Masons nominated William Wirt, of Virginia, in the hope 
of getting the national Republicans or Whigs to unite with 
them ; but the latter, in December, nominated Clay. In the fol- 
lowing March the Democrats nominated Jackson, with Van 
Buren for vice-president. During the year 1832 the action of 
congress and president with regard to the bank charter was 



ANDREW JACKSON. 1 63 

virtually a part of the campaign. In the election South Caro- 
lina voted for candidates of her own — John Floyd, of Virginia, 
and Henry Lee, of Massachusetts. There were 219 electoral 
votes for Jackson, 49 for Clay, 11 for Floyd, and 7 for Wirt. 
Jackson interpreted this overwhelming victory as a popular 
condemnation of the bank and approval of all his actions as 
president. The enthusiastic applause from all quarters which 
now greeted his rebuke of the nullifiers served still further to 
strengthen his belief in himself as a " saviour of sociecy " and 
champion of " the people." Men were getting into a state of 
mind in which questions of public policy were no longer argued 
upon their merits, but all discussion was drowned in cheers for 
Jackson. Such a state of things was not calculated to check 
his natural vehemence and disposition to override all obstacles 
in carrying his point. He now felt it to be his sacred duty to 
demolish the bank. In his next message to congress he created 
some alarm by expressing doubts as to the bank's solvency and 
recommending an investigation to see if the deposits of public 
money were safe. In some parts of the country there were 
indications of a run upon the branches of the bank. The 
committee of ways and means investigated the matter, and re- 
ported the bank as safe and sound, but a minority report threw 
doubt upon these conclusions, so that the public uneasiness 
was not allayed. The conclusions of the members of the com- 
mittee, indeed, bore little reference to the evidence before 
them, and were determined purely by political partisanship. 
Jackson made up his mind that the deposits must be removed 
from the bank. The act of 1816, which created that institution, 
provided that the public funds might be removed from it by 
order of the secretary of the treasury, who must, however, in- 
form congress of his reasons for the removal. As congress re- 
solved, by heavy majorities, that the deposits were safe in the 
bank, the spring of 1833 was hardly a time when a secretary of 
the treasury would feel himself warranted, in accordance with 
the provisions of the act, to order their removal. Sec. Mc- 
Lane was accordingly unwilling to issue such an order. In 
what followed, Jackson had the zealous co-operation of Ken- 
dall and Blair. In May, McLane was transferred to the state 
department, and was succeeded in the treasury by William J. 
Duane, of Pennsylvania. The new secretary, however, was 
convinced that the removal was neither necessary nor wise, and, 
12 



164 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

in spite of the president's utmost efforts, refused either to issue 
the order or to resign his office. In September, accordingly, 
Duane was removed, and Roger B. Taney was appointed in his 
place. Taney at once ordered that after the ist of October 
the public revenues should no longer be deposited with the na- 
tional bank, but with sundry state banks, which soon came to 
be known as the "pet banks." Jackson alleged, as one chief 
reason for this proceeding, that if the bank were to continue to 
receive public revenues on deposit, it would unscrupulously 
use them in buying up all the members of congress and thus 
securing an indefinite renewal of its charter. This, he thought, 
would be a death-blow to free government in America. His 
action caused intense excitement and some commefcial distress, 
and prepared the way for further disturbance. In the next 
session of the senate Clay introduced a resolution of censure, 
which was carried after a debate which lasted all winter. It 
contained a declaration that the president had assumed "au- 
thority and power not conferred by the constitution and laws, 
but in derogation of both." Jackson protested against the reso- 
lution, but the senate refused to receive his protest. Many of 
his appointments were rejected by the senate, especially those 
of the directors of the bank, and of Taney as secretary of the 
treasury. An attempt was made to curtail the president's ap- 
pointing power. On the other hand, many of the president's 
friends declaimed against the senate as an aristocratic institu- 
tion, which ought to be abolished. Benton was Jackson's most 
powerful and steadfast ally in the senate. Benton was deter- 
mined that the resolution of censure should be expunged from 
the records of the senate, and his motion continued to be the 
subject of acrimonious debate for two years. The contest was 
carried into the state elections, and some senators resigned in 
consequence of instructions received from their state legisla- 
tures. At length, on 16 Jan., 1837, a few weeks before Jack- 
son's retirement from office, Benton's persistency triumphed, 
and the resolution of censure was expunged. Meanwhile the 
consequence of the violent method with which the finances had 
been handled were rapidly developing. Many state banks, in- 
cluding not a few of the "wildcat " species, had been formed, 
to supply the paper currency that was supposed to be needed. 
The abundance of paper, together with the rapid westward 
movement of population, caused reckless speculation and an 



ANDREW JACKSON. 



165 




a^^2^~f^Ac±^ ^^^L«^< 



inflation of values. Extensive purchases of public lands were 
paid for in paper until the treasury scented danger, and by the 
president's order in July, 1836, the " specie circular " was issued, 
directing that only gold or silver should 
be received for public lands. This 
caused a demand for coin, which none 
but the " pet banks " could hope to 
succeed in meeting. But these banks 
were at the same time crippled by or- 
ders to surrender, on the following 
New- Year's day, one fourth of the sur- 
plus revenues deposited with them, as 
it was to be distributed as a loan 
among the states. The " pet banks" 
had regarded the deposits as capital to 
be used in loans, and they were now 
suddenly obliged to call in these loans. 

These events led to the great panic of 1837, which not only 
scattered thousands of private fortunes to the winds, but 
wrecked Van Buren's administration and prepared the way for 
the Whig victory of 1840. 

In foreign affairs Jackson's administration won great credit 
through its enforcement of the French spoliation claims. Eu- 
ropean nations which had claims for damages against France 
on account of spoliations committed by French cruisers during^ 
the Napoleonic wars had found no difficulty after the peace of 
1815 in obtaining payment ; but the claims of the United States 
had been superciliously neglected. In 1831, after much fruit- 
less negotiation, a treaty was made by which France agreed to 
pay the United States $5,000,000 in six annual instalments. 
The first payment was due on 2 Feb., 1833. A draft for the 
amount was presented to the French minister of finance, and 
payment was refused on the ground that no appropriation for 
that purpose had been made by the chambers. Louis Philippe 
brought the matter before the chambers, but no appropriation 
was made. Jackson was not the man to be trifled with in this 
way. In his message of December, 1834, he gravely recom- 
mended to congress that a law be passed authorizing the cap- 
ture of French vessels enough to make up the amount due. 
The French government was enraged, and threatened war 
unless the president should apologize — not a hopeful sort of 



J 56 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

demand to make of Andrew Jackson. Here Great Britain in- 
terposed with good advice to France, which led to the payment 
of the claim without further delay. The effect of Jackson's 
attitude was not lost upon European governments, while at 
home the hurrahs for "Old Hickory " were louder than ever. 
The days when foreign powers could safely insult us were evi- 
dently gone by. 

The period of Jackson's presidency was one of the most re- 
markable in the history of the world, and nowhere more remark- 
able than in the United States. It was signalized by the intro- 
duction and rapid development of railroads, of ocean naviga- 
tion through Ericsson's invention of the screw-propeller, of 
agricultural machines, anthracite coal, and friction matches, of 
the modern type of daily newspaper, of the beginnings of such 
cities as Chicago, of the steady immigration from Europe, of 
the rise of the Abolitionists and other reformers, and of the 
blooming of American literature when to the names of Bryant, 
Cooper, and Irving were added those of Longfellow, Whittier, 
Prescott, Holmes, and Hawthorne. The rapid expansion of the 
country and the extensive changes in ideas and modes of living 
brought to the surface much crudeness of thought and action. 
As the typical popular hero of such a period, Andrew Jackson 
must always remain one of the most picturesque and interest- 
ing figures in American history. His ignorance of the princi- 
ples of statesmanship, the crudeness of his methods, and the 
evils that have followed from some of his measures, are obvious 
enough and have often been remarked upon. But in having a 
president of this type and at such a time we were fortunate in 
securing a man so sound in most of his impulses, of such abso- 
lute probity, truthfulness, and courage, and such unflinching 
loyalty to the Union. Jackson's death, in the year in which 
Texas was annexed to the United States, marks in a certain 
sense the close of the political era in which he had played so 
great a part. From the year 1845 the Calhoun element in the 
Democratic party became more and more dominant until i860, 
while the elements more congenial with Jackson and variously 
represented by Benton, Blair, and Van Buren, went to form an 
important part of the force of Republicans and War Democrats 
that finally silenced the nullifiers and illustrated the maxim 
that the Union must be preserved. 

Jackson died at his home, " The Hermitage," near Nashville, 



ANDREW JACKSON. 1 6? 

a view of which is given on page 159. The principal biogra- 
phies of him are by James Parton (3 vols., New York, 1861) and 
William G. Sumner (Boston, 1882) ; also General Jackson (New 
York, 1892), contributed by James Parton to the " Great Com- 
manders " series. Other biographies are by John H. Eaton 
(Philadelphia, 1817); P. A. Goodwin (Hartford, 1832) ; William 
Cobbett (New York, 1834) ; Amos Kendall (1843) ; Oliver Dyer 
(New York, 1891). For accounts of his administration, see, in 
general, Benton's "Thirty Years' View," the memoirs of John 
Q. Adams, the histories of the United States by Schooler and 
Von Hoist, and the biographies of Clay, Webster, Adams, Cal- 
houn, Benton, and Edward Livingston. See, also, Mayo's 
" Political Sketches of Eight Years in Washington " (Baltimore, 
1839). The famous " Letters of Major Jack Downing" (New 
York, 1834), a burlesque on Jackson's administration, were 
wonderfully popular in their day. The picture on page 165, 
taken from a miniature made much earlier in life than the steel 
portrait that appears with this article, was pamted by Valle, a 
French artist, and presented by Jackson to his friend Living- 
ston, with the following note, written at his headquarters, New 
Orleans, i May, 1815 : "Mr. E. Livingston is requested to ac- 
cept this picture as a mark of the sense I entertain of his public 
services, and as a token of my private friendship and esteem." 
The full-length portrait from a painting by Earle, prefixed to 
Parton's third volume, is said to be the best representation of 
Jackson as he appeared upon the street. 

His wife, Rachel, born in 1767 ; died at the Hermitage, 
Tenn., 22 Dec, 1828, was the daughter of Col. John Donelson, 
a wealthy Virginia surveyor, who owned extensive iron-works 
in Pittsylvania county, Va., but sold them in 1779 and settled 
in French Salt Springs, where the city of Nashville now stands. 
He kept an account of his journey thither, entitled "Journal 
of a Voyage, intended by God's Permission, in the Good Boat 
'Adventure,' from Fort Patrick Henry, on Holston River, to 
the French Salt Springs, on Cumberland River, kept by John 
Donelson." Subsequently he removed to Kentucky, where he 
had several land-claims, and, after his daughter's marriage to 
Capt. Lewis Robards, he returned to Tennessee, where he was 
murdered by unknown persons in the autumn of 1785. (For 
an account of the peculiar circumstances of her marriage to 



i68 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 




Jackson, see page 139.) Mrs. Jackson went to New Orleans 
after the battle, and was presented by the ladies of that city 
with a set of topaz jewelry. In her portrait at the Hermitage, 
painted by Earle, she wears the dress in which she appeared at 

the ball that was given in New Or- 
leans in honor of her husband, and 
of which the accompanying vignette 
is a copy. She went with Gen. Jack- 
son to Florida in 182 1, to Washing- 
ton and Charleston in 1824, and to 
New Orleans in 1828. For many 
years she had suffered from an af- 
fection of the heart, which was aug- 
mented by various reports that were 
in circulation regarding her previous 
career, and her death was hastened 
by overhearing a magnified account 
of her experiences. She was pos- 
sessed of a kind and attractive manner, was deeply religious 
and charitable, and adverse to public life. — Their niece, Emily, 
born in Tennessee ; died there in December, 1836, was the 
youngest daughter of Capt. John Donelson and the wife of An- 
drew J. Donelson. She presided in the White House during the 
administration of President Jackson, who always spoke of her 
as " my daughter." During the Eaton controversy she received 
Mrs. Eaton on public occasions, but refused to recognize her 
socially. — His daughter-in-law, Sarah York, the wife of his 
adopted son, Andrew Jackson, born in 1806; died at the Her- 
mitage, Nashville, Tenn., 23 Aug., 1887, also presided at the 
White House during President Jackson's administration. Her 
son, Andrew, was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 
1858, and served in the Confederate army, in which he was 
colonel of the First Regiment of Tennessee Artillery. 



^9 ci^r^t O fa rA«o *.^/ 




.!ig'b7 HBHaL Jr Jh-w Yirk 



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D APPLETON & CO 



MARTIN VAN BUREN. 

Martin Van Buren, eighth president of the United States, 
born in Kinderhook, Columbia co., N. Y., 5 Dec, 1782; died 
there, 24 July, 1862. He was the eldest son of Abraham Van 
Buren, a small farmer, and of Mary Hoes (originally spelled 
Goes), whose first husband was named Van Alen. Martin stud- 
ied the rudiments of English and Latin in the schools of his 
native village, and read law in the office of Francis Sylvester at 
the age of fourteen years. Rising as a student by slow grada- 
tions from office-boy to lawyer's clerk, copyist of pleas, and 
finally to the rank of special pleader in the constables' courts, he 
patiently pursued his legal novitiate through the term of seven 
years and familiarized himself with the technique of the bar 
and with the elements of common law. Combining with these 
professional studies a fondness for extemporaneous debate, he 
was early noted for his intelligent observation of public events 
and for his interest in politics. He was chosen to participate 
in a nominating convention when he was only eighteen years 
old. In 1802 he went to New York and there studied law with 
William P. Van Ness, a friend of Aaron Burr. He was admitted 
to the bar in 1803, returned to Kinderhook, and associated him- 
self in practice with his half-brother, James J. Van Alen. 

Van Buren was a zealous adherent of Jefferson, and sup- 
ported Morgan Lewis for governor of New York in 1803 against 
Aaron Burr. In February, 1807, he married Hannah Hoes, a 
distant kinswoman, and in the winter of i8o6-'7 he removed to 
Hudson, the county-seat of Columbia county, and in the same 
year was admitted to practice in the supreme court. In the 
state election of 1807 he supported Daniel D. Tompkins for 
governor against Morgan Lewis, the latter, in the factional 
changes of New York politics, having come to be considered 
less true than the former to the measures of Jefferson. In 1808 
Van Buren became surrogate of Columbia county, displacing 



170 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

his half-brother and partner, who belonged to the defeated fac- 
tion. He held his office till 1813, when, on a change of party 
predominance at Albany, his half-brother was restored. Atten- 
tively watching the drift of political events, he figured in the 
councils of his party at a convention held in Albany early in 
181 1, when the proposed recharter of the United States bank 
was the leading question of Federal politics. Though Albert 
Gallatin, secretary of the treasury, had recommended a rechar- 
ter, the predominant sentiment of the Republican party was 
adverse to the measure. Van Buren shared in this hostility and 
publicly lauded the "Spartan firmness" of George Clinton 
when as vice-president he gave his casting-vote in the U. S. 
senate against the bank bill, 20 Feb., 181 1. 

In 181 2 Van Buren was elected to the senate of New York 
from the middle district as a Clinton Republican, defeating 
Edward P. Livingston, the candidate of the "Quids," by a ma- 
jority of 200. He took his seat in November of that year and 
became thereby a member of the court of errors, then com- 
posed of senators in connection with the chancellor and the 
supreme court. As senator he strenuously opposed the charter 
of " the Bank of America," which, with a large capital and with 
the promise of liberal subsidies to the state treasury, was then 
seeking to establish itself in New York and to take the place 
of the United States bank. He upheld Gov. Tompkins when, 
exercising his extreme prerogative, he prorogued the legislature 
on 27 March, 1812, to prevent the passage of the bill. Though 
counted among the adherents of the administration of Madison, 
and though committed to the policy of declaring war against 
Great Britain, he sided with the Republican members of the 
New York legislature when in 181 2 they determined to break 
from "the Virginia dynasty " and to support De Witt Clinton 
for the presidency. In the following year, however, he dis- 
solved his political relations with Clinton and resumed the en- 
tente cordiale vi'Mh. Madison's administration. In 1814 he carried 
through the legislature an effective war-measure known as 
" the classification bill," providing for the levy of 12,000 men, 
to be placed at the disposal of the government for two years. 
He drew up the resolution of thanks voted by the legislature 
to Gen. Jackson for the victory of New Orleans. In 1815, 
while still a member of the state senate, he was appointed 
attorney-general of the state, superseding the venerable Abra- 



MARTIN VAN BUREN. 



171 



ham Van Vechten. In this same year De Witt Clinton, falling 
a prey to factional rivalries in his own party, was removed 
by the Albany council from the mayoralty of New York city — 
an act of petty proscription in which Van Buren sympathized, 
according to the " spoils system "'then in vogue. In 1816 he 
was re-elected to the state senate for a further term of four 
years, and, removing to Albany, formed a partnership with his 
life-long friend, Benjamin F. Butler. In the same year he was 
appointed a regent of the University of New York. In the 
legislative discussions of 1816 he advocated the surveys pre- 
liminary to Clinton's scheme for uniting the waters of the great 
lakes with the Hudson. 

The election of Gov. Tompkins as vice-president of the 
United States had left the " Bucktails " of the Republican 
party without their natural leader. The people, moreover, in 
just resentment at the indignity done to Clinton by his removal 
from the New York mayoralty, were now spontaneously minded 
to make him governor that he might preside over the execution 
of the Erie canal which he had projected. Van Buren acqui- 
esced in a drift of opinion that he was powerless to check, and, 
on the election of Clinton, supported the canal policy; but he 
soon came to an open rupture with the governor on questions 
of public patronage, and, arraying himself in active opposition 
to Clinton's re-election, he was in turn subjected to the pro- 
scription of the Albany council acting in Clinton's interest. He 
was removed from the office of attorney-general in 1819. He 
opposed the election of Clinton in 1820. Clinton was re-elect- 
ed by a small majority, but both houses of the legislature and 
the council of appointment fell into the hands of the anti-Clin- 
ton Republicans. The office of attorney-general was now ten- 
dered anew to Van Buren, but he declined it. The politics of 
New York, a mesh of factions from the beginning of the century, 
were in a constant state of swirl and eddy from 1819 till 1821. 
The old party-formations were dissolved in the "era of good 
feeling." What with "Simon-pure" Republicans, Clintonian 
Republicans, Clintonian Federalists, "high-minded" Federal- 
ists cleaving to Monroe, and Federalists pure and simple, the 
points of crystallization were too many to admit of forming a 
strong or compact body around any centre. No party could 
combine votes enough in the legislature of i8i8-'i9 to elect its 
candidate for U. S. senator. Yet out of this medley of factions 



1/2 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



and muddle of opinions Van Buren, by his moderation and his 
genius for political organization, evolved order and harmony 
at the election for senator in the following year. Under his 
lead all parties united on Rufus King, a Federalist of the old 
school, who had patriotically supported the war against Great 
Britain after it was declared, and who by his candor had won 
the confidence of President Monroe ; and Rufus King was re- 
elected with practical unanimity at a time when he was fresh 
from the hot debate in the U. S. senate against the admission 
of Missouri without a restriction on slavery. His anti-slavery 
views on that question were held by Van Buren to " conceal no 
plot " against the Republicans, who, he engaged, would give 
** a true direction " to that momentous issue. What the " true 
direction " was to be he did not say, except as it might be in- 
ferred from his concurrence in a resolution of the legislature 
of New York instructing the senators of that state " to oppose 
the admission, as a state in the Union, of any territory not com- 
prised within the original boundaries of the United States with- 
out making the prohibition of slavery therein an indispensable 
condition of admission." In that Republican resolution of 
1820 "the Wilmot proviso" of 1847 appeared above our polit- 
ical horizon, but soon vanished from sight on the passage of 
the Missouri compromise in 1821. 

On 6 Feb., 182 1, Van Buren was elected U. S. senator, re- 
ceiving in both houses of the legislature a majority of twenty- 
five over Nathan Sanford, the Clintonian candidate, for whom 
the Federalists also voted. In the same year he was chosen 
from Otsego county as a member of the convention to revise 
the constitution of the state. In that convention he met in de- 
bate Chancellor Kent, Chief-Justice Ambrose Spencer, and 
others. Against innovations his attitude was here conservative. 
He advocated the executive veto. He opposed manhood suf- 
frage, seeking to limit the elective franchise to householders, 
that this "invaluable right" might not be " cheapened " and 
that the rural districts might not be overborne by the cities. 
He favored negro suffrage if negroes were taxed. With offence 
to party friends, he vehemently resisted the eviction by con- 
stitutional change of the existing supreme court, though its 
members were his bitter political enemies. He opposed an 
elective judiciary and the choice of minor offices by the people, 
as swamping the right it pretended to exalt. 



MARTIN VAN BUREN. Ijrj 

He took his seat in the U. S. senate, 3 Dec, 182 1, and was 
at once made a member of its committees on the judiciary and 
finance. For many years he was chairman of the former. In 
March, 1822, he voted, on the bill to provide a territorial gov- 
ernment for Florida, that no slave should be directly or indi- 
rectly imported into that territory " except by a citizen re- 
moving into it for actual settlement and being at the time a 
bona-fide owner of such slave." Van Buren voted with the 
northern senators for the retention of this clause; but its exclu- 
sion by the vote of the southern senators did not import any 
countenance to the introduction of slaves into Florida from 
abroad, as such introduction was already prohibited by a Fed- 
eral statute which in another part of the bill was extended to 
Florida. Always averse to imprisonment for debt as the result 
of misfortune, Van Buren took an early opportunity to advo- 
cate its abolition as a feature of Federal jurisprudence. He 
opposed in 1824 the ratification of the convention with England 
for the suppression of the slave-trade (perhaps because a quali- 
fied right of search was annexed to it), though the convention 
was urgently pressed on the senate by President Monroe. He 
supported William H.Crawford for the presidency in 1824, both 
in the congressional caucus and be- 
fore the people. He voted for the 
protective tariff of 1824 and for that 
of 1828, though he took no part in 
the discussion of the economic prin- 
ciples underlying either. He voted 
for the latter under instructions, 
maintaining a politic silence as to 
his personal opinions, which seem to 
have favored a revenue tariff with 
incidental protection. He vainly ad- 
vocated an amendment of the con- 
stitution for the election of president ^^^^^^T^^^^i^^^iy^U^ce-^^--^ 
by the intervention of an electoral 

college to be specially chosen from as many separate districts 
as would comprise the whole country while representing the 
electoral power of all the states. The measure was designed to 
appease the jealousy of the small states by practically wiping 
out state lines in presidential electioris and at the same time 
proposed to guard against elections by the house of representa- 




174 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



tives, as in case of no choice at a first scrutiny the electoral col- 
leges were to be reconvened. After voting for a few '' internal 
improvements," he opposed them as unconstitutional in the 
shape then given to them, and proposed in 1824 and again in 1825 
to bring them within the power of congress by a constitutional 
amendment that should protect the " sovereignty of the states " 
while equally distributing these benefits of the government. 
In a debate on the Federal judiciary in 1826 he took high 
ground in favor of "state rights" as against the umpirage of 
the supreme court on political questions, and deplored the pow- 
er of that court to arraign sovereign states at its bar for the 
passage of laws alleged to impair" the obligation of contracts." 
He confessed admiration for the Republicans of 1802 who had 
repealed "the midnight judiciary act." He opposed the Pana- 
ma mission, and reduced the " Monroe doctrine " to its true his- 
torical proportions as a caveat and not a " pledge." On all 
questions he was strenuous for a " strict construction of the 
constitution." He favored in 1826 the passage of a general 
bankrupt law, but, in opposing the pending measure, sharply 
accentuated the technical distinction of English law between 
"bankrupt" and "insolvent" acts — a distinction which, in the 
complexity of modern business transactions, Chief-Justice Mar- 
shall had pronounced to be more metaphysical than real, but 
which to Van Buren was vital because the constitution says 
nothing about "insolvent laws." 

He was re-elected to the senate in 1827, but soon resigned 
his seat to accept the office of governor of New York, to which 
he was elected in 1828. As governor he opposed free banking 
and advocated the "safety-fund system," making all the banks 
of the state mutual insurers of each other's soundness. He 
vainly recommended the policy of separating state from Fed- 
eral elections. After entering on the ofifice of governor he 
never resumed the practice of law. Van Buren was a zealous 
supporter of Andrew Jackson in the presidential election of 
1828, and was called in 1829 to be the premier of the new ad- 
ministration. As secretary of state he brought to a favorable 
close the long-standmg feud between the United States and 
England with regard to the West India trade. Having an eye 
to the presidential succession after Jackson's second term, 
and not wishing meanwhile to compromise the administration 
or himself, he resigned his secretaryship in June, 1831, and was 



MARTIN VAN BUREN. 



175 



sent as minister to England. The senate refused in 1832 to 
confirm his nomination, by the casting-vote of John C. Cal- 
houn, the vice-president. Conscientious Whigs, like Theodore 
Frelinghuysen, confessed in after days the reluctance with 
which they consented to this doubtful act. A clause in one of 
Van Buren's despatches while secretary, containing an invidi- 
ous reference to the preceding administration, was alleged as 
the ground of his rejection. The offence was venial, com- 
pared with the license taken by Robert R. Livingston when, 
in negotiating the Louisiana purchase, he cited the spectre of 
a Federalist administration playing into the hands of "the 
British faction." Moreover, the pretext was an afterthought, 
as the clause had excited no remark when first published, and, 
when the outcry was raised, Jackson " took the responsibility " 
for it. The tactical blunder of the Whigs soon avenged itself by 
bringing increased popularity to Van Buren. He became, with 
Jackson, the symbol of his party, and, elected vice-president in 
1832, he came in 1833 to preside over the body which a year 
before had rejected him as foreign minister. He presided with 
unvarying suavity and fairness. Taking no public part in the 
envenomed discussions of the time, he was known to sympa- 
thize with Jackson in his warfare on the United States bank, 
and soon came to be generally regarded by his party as the 
lineal successor of that popular leader. 

He was formally nominated for the presidency on 20 May, 
1835, and was elected in 1836 over his three competitors, Wil- 
liam H. Harrison, Hugh L. White, and Daniel Webster, by a 
majority of 57 in the electoral college, but of only 25,000 in 
the popular vote. The tide of Jacksonism was beginning to 
ebb. South Carolina, choosing her electors by state legislature 
and transferring to Van Buren her hatred of Jackson, voted 
for Willie P. Mangum. During the canvass Van Buren had been 
opposed at the north and championed at the south as " a north- 
ern man with southern principles." As vice-president, he had 
in 1835 given a casting-vote for the bill to prohibit the circula- 
tion of " incendiary documents " through the mails, and as a 
candidate for the presidency he had pledged himself to resist 
the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia without 
the consent of the slave-states and to oppose the " slightest in- 
terference " with slavery in the states. He had also pledged 
himself against the distribution of surplus revenues among the 



176 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

States, against internal improvements at Federal expense, and 
against a national bank. 

Compelled by the fiscal embarrassments of the government, 
in the financial crash of 1837, to summon congress to meet in 
special session, 4 Sept., 1837, he struck in his first message the 
key-note of his whole administration. After a detailed analy- 
sis of the financial situation, and of the causes in trade and 
speculation that had led to it, he proceeded to develop his 
favorite idea of an independent treasury for the safe-keeping 
and disbursement of the public moneys. This idea was not 
new. It was as old as the constitution. The practice of the 
government had departed from it only by insensible degrees, 
until at length, in spite of the protests of Jefferson, it had been 
consolidated into a formal order of congress that the revenues 
of the government should be deposited in the United States 
bank. On the removal of the deposits by Jackson in 1833, 
they had been placed in the custody of " the pet banks," and 
had here been used to stimulate private trade and speculation, 
until the crisis in 1837 necessitated a change of fiscal policy. 
By every consideration of public duty and safety, conspiring 
with what he believed to be economic advantage to the people, 
Van Buren enforced the policy of an independent treasury on 
a reluctant congress. There was here no bating of breath or 
mincing of words ; but it was not until near the close of his ad- 
ministration that he succeeded in procuring the assent of con- 
gress to the radical measure that divorced the treasury from 
private banking and trade. The measure was formally repealed 
by the Whig congress of 1842, after which the public moneys 
were again deposited in selected banks until 1846, when the 
independent treasury was reinstalled and has ever since held 
its place under all changes of administration. He signed the 
independent treasury bill on 4 July, 1840, as being a sort of 
"second Declaration of Independence," in his own idea and in 
that of his party. Von Hoist, the sternest of Van Buren's 
critics, awards to him on " this one question " the credit of 
" courage, firmness, and statesman-like insight." It was the 
chef amivre of his public career. He also deserves credit for 
the fidelity with which, at the evident sacrifice of popularity 
with a certain class of voters, he adhered to neutral obligations 
on the outbreak of the Canada rebellion late in 1837. 

The administration of Van Buren, beginning and ending 



MARTIN VAN BUR EN. 



177 



with financial panic, went down under the cloud rising on the 
country in 1840. The enemies and the friends of the United 
States bank had equally sown the wmd during Jackson's ad- 
ministration. Van Buren was left to reap the whirlwind, which 
in the "political hurricane" of 1840 lifted Gen. Harrison into 
the presidential chair. The Democratic defeat was overwhelm- 
ing. Harrison received 234 electoral votes, and Van Buren 
only 60. The majority for Harrison in the popular vote was 
nearly 140,000. Retiring after this overthrow to the shades of 
Lindenwald, a beautiful country-seat which he had purchased 
in his native county, Van Buren gave no vent to repinings. In 
1842 he made a tour through the southern states, visiting 
Henry Clay at Ashland. In 1843 he came to the front with 
clear-cut views in favor of a tariff for revenue only. But on 
the newly emergent question of Texas annexation he took a 
decided stand in the negative, and on this rock of offence to 
the southern wing of his party his candidature was wrecked in 
the Democratic national convention of 1844, which met at Bal- 
timore on 27 May. He refused to palter with this issue, on the 
ground of our neutral obligations to Mexico, and when the 
nomination went to James K. Polk, of Tennessee, he gave no 
sign of resentment. His friends brought to Polk a loyal sup- 
port, and secured his election by carrying for him the decisive 
vote of the State of New York. 

Van Buren continued to take an interest in public affairs, 
and when in 1847 the acquisition of new territory from Mexico 
raised anew the vexed question of slavery m the territories, he 
gave in his adhesion to the "Wilmot proviso." In the new 
elective affinities produced by this " burning question" a re- 
distribution of political elements took place in the chaos of 
New York politics. The " Barnburner " and the "Hunker" 
factions came to a sharp cleavage on this line of division. The 
former declared their " uncompromising hostility to the exten- 
sion of slavery." In the Herkimer Democratic convention of 
26 Oct., 1847, the Free-soil banner was openly displayed, and 
delegates were sent to the Democratic national convention. 
From this convention, assembled at Baltimore in May, 1848, 
the Herkimer delegates seceded before any presidential nomi- 
nation was made. In June, 1848, a Barnburner convention 
met at Utica to organize resistance to the nomination of Gen. 
Lewis Cass, who, in his " Nicholson letter," had disavowed the 



178 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



"Wilmot proviso." To this convention Van Buren addressed 
a letter, declining in advance a nomination for the presidency, 
but pledging opposition to the new party shibboleth. In spite of 
his refusal, he was nominated, and this nomination was reaffirmed 
by the Freesoil national convention of Buffalo, 9 Aug., 1848, 
when Charles Francis Adams was associated with him as candi- 
date for the vice-presidency. In the ensuing presidential elec- 
tion this ticket received only 291,263 votes, but, as the result 
of the triangular duel. Gen. Cass was defeated and Gen. Zach- 
ary Taylor, the Whig candidate, was elected. The precipitate 
annexation of Texas and its natural sequel, the war with Mexi- 
co, had brought their Nemesis in the utter confusion of national 
politics. Van Buren received no electoral votes, but his popu- 
lar Democratic vote in Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York 
exceeded that of Cass. Henceforth he was simply a spectator 
in the political arena. On all public questions save that of 
slavery he remained an unfaltering Democrat, and when it was 
fondly supposed that "the slavery issue " had been forever ex- 
orcised by the compromise measures of 1850, he returned in 
full faith and communion to his old party allegiance. In 1852 
Tie began to write his " Inquiry into the Origin and Course of 
Political Parties in the United States" (New York, 1867), but 
it was never finished and was published as a fragment. He 
supported Franklin Pierce for the presidency in 1852, and, after 
spending two years in Europe, returned in time to vote for 
James Buchanan in 1856. In i860 he voted for the combined 
electoral ticket against Lincoln, but when the civil war began 
he gave to the administration his zealous support. 

Van Buren was the target of political accusation during his 
whole public career, but kept his private character free from 
reproach. In his domestic life he was as happy as he was ex- 
emplary. Always prudent in his habits and economical in his 
tastes, he none the less maintained in his style of living the 
easy state of a gentleman, whether in public station at Albany 
and Washington, or at Lindenwald in his retirement. As a man 
of the world he was singularly affable and courteous, blending 
formal deference with natural dignity and genuine cordiality. 
Intensely partisan in his opinions and easily startled by the 
red rag of " Hamiltonian Federalism," he never carried the 
contentions of the political arena into the social sphere. The 
asperities of personal rivalry estranged him for a time from 



MARTIN VAN BUREN. 



179 



Calhoun, after the latter denounced him in the senate in 1837 
as "a practical politician, ' with whom "justice, right, patriot- 
ism, etc., were mere vague phrases," but with his great Whig 
rival, Henry Clay, he maintained unbroken relations of friend- 
ship through all vicissitudes of political fortune. As a lawyer 
his rank was eminent. Though never rising in speech to the 
heights of oratory, he was equally fluent and facile before bench 
or jury, and equally felicitous whether expounding the intrica- 
cies of fact or of law in a case. His manner was mild and in- 
sinuating, never declamatory. Without carrying his juridical 
studies into the realm of jurisprudence, he yet had a knowledge 
of law that fitted him to cope with the greatest advocates of 
the New York bar. The evidences of his legal learning and 
acute dialectics are still preserved in the New York reports 
of Cowen, Johnson, and Wendell. As a debater in the sen- 
ate, he always went to the pith of questions, disdaining the 
arts of rhetoric. As a writer of political letters or of state pa- 
pers, he carried diffusiveness to a fault, which sometimes hinted 
at a weakness in positions requiring so much defence. As a 
politician he was masterful in leadership — so much so that, 
alike by friends and foes, he was credited with reducing its 
practices to a fine art. He was a member of the famous Albany 
regency which for so many years controlled the politics of New 
York, and was long popularly known as its " director." Fertile 
in the contrivance of means for the attainment of the public 
ends which he deemed desirable, he was called "the little ma- 
gician," from the deftness of his touch in politics. But com- 
bining the statesman's foresight with the politician's tact, he 
showed his sagacity rather by seeking a majority for his views 
than by following the views of a majority. Accused of " non- 
committalism," and with some show of reason in the early 
stages of his career, it was only as to men and minor measures 
of policy that he practised a prudent reticence. On questions of 
deeper principle — an elective judiciary, negro suffrage, univer- 
sal suffrage, etc. — he boldly took the unpopular side. In a day 
of unexampled political giddiness he stood firmly for his sub- 
treasury system against the doubts of friends, the assaults of 
enemies, and the combined pressure of wealth and culture in 
the country. Dispensing patronage according to the received 
custom of his times, he yet maintained a high standard of ap- 
pointment. That he could rise above selfish considerations 
13 



l8o LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

was shown when he promoted the elevation of Rufus King in 
1820, or when he strove in 1838 to bring Washington Irving 
into his cabinet with small promise of gain to his doubtful po- 
litical fortunes by such an " unpractical " appointment. As a 
statesman he had his compact fagot of opinions, to which he 
adhered in evil or good report. It might seem that the logic 
of his principles in 1848, combined with the subsequent drift of 
events, should have landed him in the Free-soil party that 
Abraham Lincoln led to victory in i860; but it is to be re- 
membered that, while Van Buren's political opinions were in a 
fluid state, they had been cast in the doctrinal moulds of Jeffer- 
son, and had there taken rigid form and pressure. In the nat- 
ural history of American party-formations he supposed that an 
enduring antithesis had always been discernible between the 
"money power" and the "farming interest" of the land. In 
his annual message of December, 1838, holding language very 
modern in its emphasis, he counted " the anti-republican tend- 
encies of associated wealth " as among the strains that had 
been put upon our government. This is indeed the main thesis 
of his " Inquiry," a book which is more an apologia than a his- 
tory. In that chronicle of his life-long antipathy to a splendid 
consolidated government, with its imperial judiciary, funding 
systems, high tariffs, and internal improvements — the whole 
surmounted by a powerful national bank as the " regulator " 
of finance and politics — he has left an outlined sketch of the 
only dramatic unity that can be found for his eventful career. 
Confessing in 1848 that he had gone further in concession to 
slavery than many of his friends at the north had approved, 
he satisfied himself with a formal protest against the repeal of 
the Missouri compromise, carried through congress while he 
was travelling in Europe, and against the policy of making the 
Dred Scott decision a rule of Democratic politics, though he 
thought the decision sound in point of technical law. With 
these reservations, avowedly made in the interest of " strict 
construction " and of " old-time Republicanism " rather than of 
Free-soil or National reformation, he maintained his allegiance 
to the party with which his fame was identified, and which he 
was perhaps the more unwilling to leave because of the many 
sacrifices he had made in its service. The biography of Van 
Buren has been written by William H. Holland (Hartford, 
1835) ; Francis J. Grund (in German, 1835) ; William Emmons 



MARTIN VAN BUREN. igl 

(Washington, 1835) ; David Crockett (Philadelphia, 1836) ; Wil- 
liam L. Mackenzie (Boston, 1846); William Allen Butler (New 
York, 1862) ; and Edward M. Shepard (Boston, 1888). Mac- 
kenzie's book is compiled in part from surreptitious letters, 
shedding a lurid light on the " practical politics " of the times. 
Butler's sketch was published immediately after the ex-presi- 
dent's death. Shepard's biography is written with adequate 
learning and in a philosophical spirit, which may also be said 
of a brief and appreciative biography that appeared from the 
practiced pen of the venerable historian of the United States, 
in his ninetieth year, entitled " Martin Van Buren to the End 
of his Public Career, by George Bancroft" (New York, 1889). 

His wife, Hannah, born in Kinderhook, N. Y., in 1782 ; died 
in Albany, N. Y., 5 Feb., 1819, was of Dutch descent, and her 
maiden name was Hoes. She was educated in the schools of 
her native village, and was the classmate of Mr. Van Buren, 
whom she married in 1807. She was devoted to her domestic 
cares and duties, and took little interest in social affairs, but 
was greatly beloved by the poor. When Mrs. Van Buren 
learned that she could live but a few days, she expressed a 
desire that her funeral be conducted with the utmost simplic- 
ity, and the money that would otherwise have been devoted to 
mourning emblems be given to the poor and needy. 

Their son, Abraham, soldier, born in Kinderhook, N. Y., 
27 Nov., 1807; died in New York city, 15 March, 1873, was 
graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1827, and attached 
to the 2d infantry as 2d lieutenant. He served for two years 
on the western frontier, and for the next seven years as aide- 
de-camp to the general-in-chief, Alexander Macomb, except 
during several months in 1836, when he accompanied Gen. Win- 
field Scott as a volunteer aide in the expedition against the 
Seminole Indians. He was commissioned as a captain in the 
ist dragoons on 4 July, 1836, resigning on 3 March, 1837, to 
become his father's private secretary. He brought daily re- 
ports of the proceedings of congress to President Van Buren^ 
who was often influenced by his suggestions. At the begin- 
ning of the war with Mexico he re-entered the army as major 
and paymaster, his commission dating from 26 June, 1846. He 
served on the staff of Gen. Zachary Taylor at Monterey, and 



I82 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



subsequently joined the staff of Gen. Scott as a volunteer, 
and participated in every engagement from Vera Cruz to the 
capture of the city of Mexico, being brevetted lieutenant- 
colonel for bravery at Contreras and Churubusco on 20 Aug., 
1847. He served in the paymaster's department after the 
war till I June, 1854, when he again resigned, after which he 
resided for a part of the time in Columbia, S. C. (where his 
wife inherited a plantation), till 1859, and afterward for four- 
teen years leading a life of leisure in New York city. 



Another son, John, lawyer, born in Hudson, N. Y., 18 Feb., 
1810; died at sea, 13 Oct., 1866, was graduated at Yale in 1828, 

studied law with Benjamin F. Butler, 
and was admitted to the bar at Al- 
bany in 1830. In the following year 
he accompanied his father to London 
as an attache of the legation. In Feb- 
ruary, 1845, he was elected attorney- 
general of the state of New York, 
serving till 31 Dec, 1846. He took 
an active part in the political canvass 
of 1848 as an advocate of the exclu- 
sion of slavery from the territories, 
but did not remain with the Free-soil 
party in its later developments. He 
held high rank as a lawyer, appearing in the Edwin Forrest 
and many other important cases, was an eloquent pleader, and 
an effective political speaker. He died on the voyage from 
Liverpool to New York. He was popularly known as " Prince 
John"* after his travels abroad during his father's presidency, 




j^d^rr^M^^^ 



* Walking in Broadway with Fitz-Greene Halleck the year before the war, 
he exclaimed, "Ah! there's Little Van and Prince John!" when I saw ap- 
proaching arm-in-arm the silvery-haired ex-president and his handsome son. 
The former was perhaps the smallest, physically, of our chief magistrates, and 
it was a constant delight to his political opponents to designate him as " Little 
Van." In this respect, however, he in no way differed from the other twenty- 
two presidents, who without exception were labelled with more or less inim- 
ical or popular nicknames. Washington was called the " Father of his Coun- 
try" and the "American Fabius " ; John Adams, the "Colossus of Independ- 
ence" ; Jefferson, the " Sage of Monticello," and " Long Tom " by his political 
opponents; Madison, " Father of the Constitution"; Monroe, "Last Cocked 



MARTIN VAN BUREN. 1 83 

was tall and handsome, of elegant manners and appearance, a 
charming conversationalist, and an admirable raconteur. The 
accompanying excellent vignette is copied from a photograph 
by Brady, presented, in 1865, to the editor by Mr. Van Buren. 



Hat," from the circumstance of his being the last of the revolutionary presi- 
dents to wear the cocked hat of that period ; John Quincy Adams, the " Old 
Man Eloquent " ; Jackson, the " Hero of New Orleans " and " Old Hickory " \ 
Van Buren, the "Little Magician," in allusion to his political sagacity and 
astuteness, " King Martin the First," and " Little Van " ; Harrison, the " Wash- 
ington of the West " and " Old Tippecanoe " ; Tyler, "Accidental President " ; 
Polk, " Young Hickory," so christened by his admiring adherents of the presi- 
dential campaign ; Taylor, " Rough and Ready " and " Old Zach " ; Fillmore, 
the "American Louis Philippe," owing to his dignified, courteous manners and 
supposed resemblance to the French king ; Pierce, " Poor Pierce," pronounced 
Purse; Buchanan, " Old Public Functionary" and "Old Buck"; Lincoln, 
" Honest Old Abe " and " Father Abraham," used in the famous war-song, 
" We're coming. Father Abra'am, three hundred thousand strong " ; Johnson, 
" Sir Veto " and the " Tailor President " ; Grant, " Unconditional Surrender," 
and by his political adversaries the " American Caesar," in allusion to his third- 
term candidacy and their claim that Grantism was a synonym of Caesarism ; 
Hayes, " President de facto " ; Garfield, the " Teacher President " and " Martyr 
President " ; Arthur, " The First Gentleman in the Land," and by his New 
York admirers " Our Chet," a contraction of Chester ; Cleveland, the " Man of 
Destiny" and "Old Grover"; and Benjamin Harrison, "Backbone Ben" and 
the " Son of his Grandfather," the latter's hat being a conspicuous object in the 
campaign cartoons of i388 and afterward. 

At the Broadway meeting referred to, the poet mentioned a pleasant visit 
to Van Buren at Lindenwald, where he had met Washington Irving, and that 
the latter had written the concluding chapters of his " History of New York " 
when in retirement there for two months after the death of his betrothed, Miss 
Matilda Hoffman. At that time (1809) it was the estate of Irving's intimate 
friend, William P. Van Ness, an eminent lawyer and jurist, who acted as Burr's 
second in his duel with Hamilton. The ex-president purchased the property, 
Halleck informed me, from the heirs of Judge Van Ness, and incidentally re- 
marked that he had seen all the presidents except Washington, and had known 
most of them. The poet also alluded to the circumstance of Ii-ving having 
been offered by President Van Buren the portfolio of the secretary of the navy, 
which, on his declining its acceptance, was conferred on the amiable author's 
friend and literary partner, James K. Paulding. Halleck on several occasions 
introduced the name of Van Buren in his poems, and in " Fanny," which first 
appeared in 18 19, he remarks : 

" What, Egypt, was thy magic, to the tricks 

Of Mr. Charles, Judge Spencer, or Van Buren? 
The first with cards, the last in politics, 

A conjurer's fame for years has been securing." 

— Editor. 



1 84 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Abraham's wife, Angelica, born in Sumter district, S. C, 
about 1820; died in New York city, 29 Dec, 1878, was a 
daughter of Richard Singleton, a planter, and a cousin of Will- 
iam C. Preston and of Mrs. James 
Madison, who, while her kinswoman 
was completing her education in 
Philadelphia, presented her to Presi- 
dent Van Buren. A year later she 
married Maj. Van Buren, in No- 
vember, 1838, and on the following 
New-Year's-day she made her first 
appearance as mistress of the White 
House. With her husband she vis- 
ited England (where her uncle, An- 
drew Stevenson, was U. S. minis- 
ter) and other countries of Europe, 
in the spring of 1839, returning in 
the autumn to resume her place as 
hostess of the presidential mansion. The accompanying vi- 
gnette is from a portrait painted by Henry Inman. 





Engily E H I&i^ JWBrk 




D.Appleton. & Co. 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

William Henry Harrison, ninth president of the United 
States, born in Berkeley, Charles City co., Va., 9 Feb., 1773 ; died 
in Washington, D. C, 4 April, i84i,was the third and youngest 
son of Benjamin Harrison, signer of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, born in Berkeley, Charles City co., Va., about 1740; died 
in April, 1791. He was a descendant of Colonel John Harri- 
son, a distinguished officer during the civil wars of England, 
and one of the judges who tried and condemned the unfortu- 
nate Charles the First, for which, and for his active participation 
in the affairs of the commonwealth under Cromwell, he was 
himself tried and executed after the restoration. As a mem- 
ber of the burgesses in 1764 he served on the committee 
that prepared the memorials to the king, lords, and commons ; 
but in 1765, with many other prominent men, opposed the 
stamp act resolutions of Henry as impolitic. He was chosen 
in 1773 one of the committee of correspondence which united 
the colonies against Great Britain in 1774, appointed one of 
the delegates to congress, and four times re-elected to a seat 
in that body. As a member of all the Virginia conventions 
to organize resistance, he acted with the party led by Pendle- 
ton in favor of "general united opposition." On 10 June, 
1776, as chairman of the committee of the whole house of 
congress, he introduced the resolution that had been offered 
three days before by Richard Henry Lee, declaring the inde- 
pendence of the American colonies, and on 4 July he reported 
the Declaration of Independence, of which he was one of the 
signers. On his return from congress he became a member 
of the Virginia house of delegates under the new constitu- 
tion, was chosen speaker, filling that office until 1781, when 
he was twice elected governor of the commonwealth. As a 
delegate to the Virginia convention of 1788, he opposed the 
ratification of the Federal constitution, taking the ground of 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 




S^ 



Patrick Henry, James Monroe, and others, that it was a na- 
tional and not a Federal government, though when the instru- 
ment was adopted he gave it his hearty support. At the time 
of his death he was a member of the Virginia legislature. In 

person Benjamin Harrison was large 
and fleshy ; and, in spite of his suf- 
fering from gout, of unfailing good 
humor. Although without conspicu- 
ous intellectual endowments, he was 
a man of excellent judgment and 
the highest sense of honor, with a 
courage and cheerfulness that never 
faltered, and a "downright candor" 
and sincerity of character which con- 
ciliated the affection and respect of 
all who knew him. 

William Henry was educated at 
Hampden Sidney college, Virginia, and began the study of 
medicine, but before he had finished it accounts of the Indian 
outrages that had been committed on the western frontier 
raised in him a desire to enter the army for its defence. Rob- 
ert Morris, who had been appointed his guardian on the death 
of his father in 1791, endeavored to dissuade him, but his pur- 
pose being approved by Washington, who had been his father's 
friend, he was commissioned ensign in the ist infantry on 16 
Aug., 1791. He joined his regiment at Fort Washington, Ohio, 
was appointed lieutenant of the ist sub-legion, to rank from 
June, 1792, and afterward united with the army under Gen, 
Anthony Wayne. Being made aide-de-camp to the command- 
ing officer, he took part, in December, 1793, in the expedition 
that erected Fort Recovery on the battle field where St. Clair 
had been defeated two years before, and, with others, received 
thanks by name in general orders for his services. He parti- 
cipated in the engagements with the Indians that began on 
30 June, 1794, and on 19 Aug., at a council of war, submitted 
a plan of march, which was adopted and led to the victory on 
the Miami on the following day. 

Lieut. Harrison was specially complimented by Gen. Wayne, 
in his despatch to the secretary of war, for gallantry in this 
fight, and in May, 1797, was made captain, and given command 
of Fort Washington. Here he was intrusted with the duty of 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 



187 



receiving and forwarding troops, arms, and provisions to the 
forts in the northwest that had been evacuated by the British 
in obedience to the Jay treaty of 1794, and also instructed to 
report to the commanding general on all movements in the 
south, and to prevent the passage of French agents with mili- 
tary stores intended for an invasion of Louisiana. While in 
command of this fort he formed an attachment for Anna, 
youngest daughter of John Cleves Symmes, one of the judges 
of the northwest territory, and the founder of the Miami set- 
tlement in Ohio. Peace having been made with the Indians, 
Capt. Harrison resigned his commission on i June, 1798, and 
was immediately appointed by President John Adams secre- 
tary of the northwest territory, under Gen. Arthur St. Clair 
as governor, but in October, 1799, resigned to take his seat as 
territorial delegate in congress. In his one year of service, 
though he was opposed by speculators, he secured the sub- 
division of the public lands into small tracts, and the passage 
of other measures for the welfare of the settlers. During the 
session, part of the northwest territory was formed into the 
territory of Indiana, including the present states of Indiana, 
Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and Harrison was made its 
governor and superintendent of Indian affairs. Resigning his 
seat in congress, he entered on the duties of his office, which 
included the confirmation of land-grants, the defining of town- 
ships, and others that were equally important. Gov. Harrison 
was reappointed successively by President Jefferson and Presi- 
dent Madison. He organized the legislature at Vincennes in 
1805, and applied himself especially to improving the condition 
of the Indians, trying to prevent the sale of intoxicating liquors 
among them, and to introduce inoculation for the small-pox. 
He frequently held councils with them, and, although his life 
was sometimes endangered, succeeded by his calmness and 
courage in averting many outbreaks. On 30 Sept., i8og, he 
concluded a treaty with several tribes by which they sold to the 
United States about 3,000,000 acres of land on Wabash and 
White rivers. This, and the former treaties of cession that had 
been made, were condemned by Tecumseh and other chiefs on 
the ground that the consent of all the tribes was necessary to a 
legal sale. The discontent was increased by the action of specu- 
lators in ejecting Indians from the lands, by agents of the Brit- 
ish government, and by the preaching of Tecumseh's brother, 



1 88 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

the " prophet," and it was evident that an outbreak was at hand. 
The governor pursued a conciliatory course, gave to needy In- 
dians provisions from the public stores, and in July, 1810, invited 
Tecumseh and his brother, the prophet, to a council at Vincen- 
nes, requesting them to bring with them not more than thirty 
men. In response, the chief, accompanied by 400 fully armed 
warriors, arrived at Vincennes on 12 Aug. The council, held 
under the trees in front of the governor's house, was nearly 
terminated by bloodshed on the first day, but Harrison, who 
foresaw the importance of conciliating Tecumseh, prevented, 
by his coolness, a conflict that almost had been precipitated by 
the latter. The discussion was resumed on the next day, but 
with no result, the Indians insisting on the return of all the 
lands that had recently been acquired by treaty. On the day 
after the council Harrison visited Tecumseh at his camp, ac- 
companied only by an interpreter, but without success. In the 
following spring depredations by the savages were frequent, 
and the governor sent word to Tecumseh that, unless they 
should cease, the Indians would be punished. The chief prom- 
ised another interview, and appeared at Vincennes on 27 July, 
181 1, with 300 followers, but, awed probably by the presence 
of 750 militia, professed to be friendly. Soon afterward, Harri- 
son, convinced of the chief's insincerity, but not approving the 
plan of the government to seize him as a hostage, proposed, 
instead, the establishment of a military post near Tippecanoe, a 
town that had been established by the prophet on the upper 
Wabash. The news that the government had given assent to 
this scheme was received with joy, and volunteers flocked to 
Vincennes. Harrison marched from that town on 26 Sept., 
with about 900 men, including 350 regular infantry, completed 
Fort Harrison, near the site of Terre Haute, Ind., on 28 Oct., 
and, leaving a garrison there, pressed forward toward Tippe- 
canoe. On 6 Nov., when the army had reached a point a mile 
and a half distant from the town, it was met by messengers 
demanding a parley. A council being proposed for the next 
day, Harrison at once went into camp, taking, however, every 
precaution against a surprise. At four o'clock on the following 
morning a fierce attack was made on the camp by the savages, 
and the fighting continued till daylight, when the Indians were 
driven from the field by a cavalry charge. During the battle, 
in which the American loss was 108 killed and wounded, the 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 



189 



governor directed the movements of the troops. He was 
highly complimented by President Madison in his message of 
18 Dec, 181 1, and also received the thanks of the legislatures 
of Kentucky and Indiana. 

On 18 June, 1812, war was declared between Great Britain 
and the United States. On 25 Aug., Gov. Harrison, although 
not a citizen of Kentucky, was commissioned major-general 
of the militia of that state, and given command of a detach- 
ment that was sent to re-enforce Gen. William Hull, the news 
of whose surrender had not yet reached Kentucky. On 2 
Sept., while on the march, he received a brigadier-general's 
commission in the regular army, but withheld his acceptance 
till he could learn whether or not he was to be subordinate 
to Gen. James Winchester, who had been appointed to the 
command of the northwestern army. After relieving Fort 
Wayne, which had been invested by the Indians, he turned 
over his force to Gen. Winchester, and was returning to his 
home in Indiana when he met an express with a letter from 
the secretary of war, appointing him to the chief command in 
the northwest. "You will exercise," said the letter, "your 
own discretion, and act in all cases according to your own 
judgment." No latitude as great as this had been given to 
any commander sines Washington. Harrison now prepared to 
concentrate his force on the rapids of the Maumee, and thence 
to move on Maiden and Detroit. Various difficulties, however, 
prevented him from carrying out his design immediately. 
Forts were erected and supplies forwarded, but, with the ex- 
ception of a few minor engagements with Indians, the remain- 
der of the year was occupied merely in preparation for the 
coming campaign. Winchester had been ordered by Harrison 
to advance to the rapids, but the order was countermanded on 
receipt of information that Tecumseh, with a large force, was 
at the head-waters of the Wabash. Through a misunderstand- 
ing, however, Winchester continued, and on 18 Jan. captured 
Frenchtown (now Monroe, Mich.), but three days later met 
with a bloody repulse on the river Raisin fron Col. Henry Proc- 
tor. Harrison hastened to his aid, but was too late. After 
establishing a fortified camp, which he named Fort Meigs, 
after the governor of Ohio, the commander visited Cincinnati 
to obtain supplies, and while there urged the construction of a 
fleet on Lake Erie. On 2 March, 1813, he was given a major- 



190 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



general's commission. Shortly afterward, having heard that 
the British were preparing to attack Fort Meigs, he hastened 
thither, arriving on 12 April. On 28 April it was ascertained 
that the enemy under Proctor was advancmg in force, and on i 
May siege was laid to the fort. While a heavy fire was kept 
up on both sides for five days, re-enforcements under Gen. 
Green Clay were hurried forward and came to the relief of the 
Americans in two bodies, one on each side of Maumee river. 
Those on the opposite side from the fort put the enemy to 
flight, but, disregarding Harrison's signals, allowed themselves 
to be drawn into the woods, and were finally dispersed or cap- 
tured. The other detachment fought their way to the fort, and 
at the same time the garrison made a sortie and spiked the 
enemy's guns. Three days later Proctor raised the siege. He 
renewed his attack in July with 5,000 men, but after a few days 
again withdrew. 

On 10 Sept. Com. Oliver H. Perry gained his victory on 
Lake Erie, and on 16 Sept. Harrison embarked his artillery 
and supplies for a descent on Canada. The troops followed 
between the 20th and 24th, and on the 27th the army landed 
on the enemy's territory. Proctor burned the fort and navy- 
yard at Maiden and retreated, and Harrison followed on the 
next day. Proctor was overtaken on 5 Oct., and took position 
with his left flanked by the Thames, and a swamp covering his 
right, which was still further protected by Tecumseh and his 
Indians. He had made the mistake of forming his men in open 
order, which was the plan that was adopted in Indian fighting, 
and Harrison, taking advantage of the error, ordered Col. 
Richard M. Johnson to lead a cavalry charge, which broke 
through the British lines, and virtually ended the battle. With- 
in five minutes almost the entire British force was captured, 
and Proctor escaped only by abandoning his carriage and tak- 
ing to the woods. Another band of cavalry charged the In- 
dians, who lost their leader, Tecumseh, in the beginning of the 
fight, and afterward made no great resistance. This battle, 
which, if mere numbers alone be considered, was insignificant, 
was most important in its results. Together with Perry's vic- 
tory it gave the United States possession of the chain of lakes 
above Erie, and put an end to the war in uppermost Canada. 
Harrison's praises were sung in the president's message, in 
congress, and in the legislatures of the different states. Cele- 



^ 






} ^ 




h 



i 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 



191 



brations in honor of his victory were held in the principal cities 
of the Union, and he was one of the heroes of the hour. He 
now sent his troops to Niagara, and proceeded to Washington, 
where he was ordered by the president to Cincinnati to devise 
means of protection for the Indiana border. Gen. John Arm- 
strong, who was at this time secretary of war, in planning the 
campaign of 1814 assigned Harrison to the 8th military district, 
including only western states, where he could see no active 
service, and on 25 April issued an order to Maj. Holmes, one 
of Harrison's subordinates, without consulting the latter. Har- 
rison thereupon tendered his resignation, which, President 
Madison being absent, was accepted by Armstrong. This ter- 
minated Harrison's military career. In 1814, and again in 1815, 
he was appointed on commissions that concluded satisfactory 
Indian treaties, and m 1816 chosen to congress to fill a vacan- 
cy, serving till 1819. While in congress he was charged by a 
dissatisfied contractor with misuse of the public money when 
in command of the northwestern army, but was completely 
exonerated by an investigating committee of the house. At 
this time his opponents succeeded, by a vote of 13 to 11 in the 
senate, in striking his name from a resolution that had already 
passed the house, directing gold medals to be struck in honor 
of Gov. Shelby, of Kentucky, and himself, for the victory of the 
Thames. The resolution was passed unanimously two years 
later, on 24 March, 1818, and Harrison received the medal. 
Among the charges made against him was this one, that he 
would not have pursued Proctor at all, after the latter's aban- 
donment of Maiden, had it not been for Gov. Shelby; but the 
latter denied it in a letter read before the senate, and gave Gen. 
Harrison the highest praise for his promptitude and vigilance. 
While in congress, Harrison drew up and advocated a general 
militia bill, which was not successful, and also proposed an ad- 
mirable measure for the relief of soldiers, which was passed. 

In 1819 Gen. Harrison was chosen to the senate of Ohio, 
and in 1822 was a candidate for congress, but defeated on 
account of his vote against the admission of Missouri to the 
Union with the restriction that slavery should be prohibited 
there. In 1824 he was a presidential elector, voting for Henry 
Clay, and in the same year sent to the U. S. senate, where he 
succeeded Andrew Jackson as chairman of the committee on 
military affairs, introduced a bill to prevent desertions, and 



192 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



exerted himself to obtain pensions for old soldiers. He re- 
signed in 1828, having been appointed by President John 
Quincy Adams U. S. minister to the United States of Colom- 
bia. While there he wrote a letter to Gen. Simon Bolivar urg- 
ing him not to accept dictatorial powers. He was recalled at 
the outset of Jackson's administration, as is asserted by some, 
at the demand of Gen. Bolivar, and retired to his farm at 
North Bend, near Cincinnati, Ohio, where he lived quietly, fill- 
ing the offices of clerk of the county court and president of 
the county agricultural society. In 1835 Gen. Harrison was 
nominated for the presidency by meetings in Pennsylvania, 
New York, Ohio, and other states; but the opposition to Van 
Buren was not united on him, and he received only 73 electoral 
votes to the former's 170. Four years later the National Whig 
convention, which was called at Harrisburg, Pa., for 4 Dec, 
1839, to decide between the claims of several rival candidates, 
nominated him for the same office, with John Tyler, of Virginia, 
for vice-president. The Democrats renominated President Van 
Buren. The canvass that followed has been often called the 
"Log-cabin and hard-cider campaign." The eastern end of 
Gen. Harrison's house at North Bend consisted of a log-cabin 

that had been built 
by one of the first 
settlers of Ohio, but 
which had long since 
been covered with 
clapboards. The re- 
publican simplicity 
of his home was ex- 
tolled by his admir- 
ers, and a political biography of that time says that " his table, 
instead of being covered with exciting wines, is well supplied 
with the best cider." Log-cabins and hard cider, then, became 
the party emblems, and both were features of all the political 
demonstrations of the canvass, which witnessed the introduc- 
tion of the enormous mass-meetings and processions that have 
since been common just before presidential elections. The re- 
sult of the contest was the choice of Harrison, who received 
234 electoral votes to Van Buren's 60. He was inaugurated at 
Washington on 4 March, 1841, and immediately sent to the 
senate his nominations for cabinet officers, which were con- 




WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. Iq., 

firmed. They were Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, secre- 
tary of state ; Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, secretary of the treas- 
ury ; John Bell, of Tennessee, secretary of war; George E. 
Badger, of North Carolina, secretary of the navy ; Francis 
Granger, of New York, postmaster-general; and John J. Crit- 
tenden, of Kentucky, attorney-general. The senate adjourned 
on 15 March, and two days afterward tRe president called 
congress together in extra session to consider financial meas- 
ures. On 27 March, after several days of indisposition, he 
was prostrated by a chill, which was followed by bilious pneu- 
monia, and on Sunday morning, 4 April, he died. Amid the 
shadows of approachmg death, he imagined he was addressing 
his successor, and exclaimed : " Sir, I wish you to understand 
the principles of the government. I desire them carried out. 
I ask nothing more." The end came so suddenly that his wife, 
who had remained at North Bend on account of illness, was 
unable to be present at his death-bed. The event was a shock 
to the country, the more so that a chief magistrate had never 
before died in office, and especially to the Whig party, who had 
formed high hopes of his administration. His body was in- 
terred in the congressional cemetery at Washington ; but on 
7 July of the same year, at the request of his family, removed 
to North Bend, where it was placed in a tomb overlooking the 
Ohio river. This was subsequently allowed to fall into ne- 
glect, and afterward Gen. Harrison's son, John Scott, offered 
it and the surrounding land to the state of Ohio, on condition 
that it should be kept in repair. Several unsuccessful efforts 
have been made to induce the state to raise money by taxation 
for the purpose of erecting a monument to Gen. Harrison's 
memory. "He was not," it has been well said, "a great man, 
but he had lived in a great time, and had been a leader in 
great things." Harrison's inaugural address is the longest 
ever delivered by any of our presidents (the shortest is Wash- 
ington's second address, consisting of but 134 words, while 
Harrison's is 8,578), and he was also the author of a " Discourse 
on the Aborigines of the Valley of the Ohio " (Cincinnati, 
1838). His life has been written by Moses Dawson (Cincin- 
nati, 1834); by James Hall (Philadelphia, 1836); by Richard 
Hildreth (1839); by Samuel J. Burr (New York, 1840); by 
Isaac R. Jackson; and by Henry Montgomery (New York, 
1853). 



194 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



His wife, Anna, born near Morristown, N. J., 25 July, 1775 \ 
died near North Bend, Ohio, 25 Feb., 1864, was a daughter of 
John Cleves Symmes, and married Gen. 
Harrison 22 Nov., 1795. After her hus- 
band's death she lived at North Bend 
till 1855, when she went to the house 
of her son, John Scott Harrison, a few 
miles distant. Her funeral sermon was 
preached by Rev. Dr. Horace Bushnell, 
and her body lies by the side of her hus- 
band at North Bend. 

Their son, John Scott, born in Vin- 
cennes, Ind., 4 Oct., 1804; died near 
C^ytx '^^sc-if-w^ '^"'^ North Bend, Ohio, 26 May, 1878, received 
a liberal education, and was elected to 
congress as a Whig, serving from 5 Dec, 1853, till 3 March, 
1857. His third son, Benjamin, became the twenty-third presi- 
dent of the United States. 




A daughter, Lucy, born in Richmond, Va., in 1798; died in 
Cincinnati, Ohio, 7 April, 1826, became the wife of David K. 
Este, an eminent lawyer and jurist of the latter city, and was 
noted for her piety and benevolence. 




-O.APrLKTOM & C? 



JOHN TYLER. 

John Tyler, tenth president of the United States, born at 
Greenway, Charles City co., Va., 29 March, 1790 ; died in Rich- 
mond, Va., 18 Jan., 1862. He was the second son of Judge 
John Tyler and Mary Armistead. In early boyhood he attend- 
ed the small school kept by John McMurdo, who was so dili- 
gent in his use of the birch that in later years Mr. Tyler said i/' 
" it was a wonder he did not whip all the sense out of his schol- 
ars." At the age of eleven young Tyler was one of the ring- 
leaders in a rebellion in which the despotic McMurdo was over- 
powered by numbers, tied hand and foot, and left locked up in 
the school-house until late at night, when a passing traveller 
effected an entrance and released him. On complaining to 
Judge Tyler, the indignant school-master was met with the apt 
reply, " Sic semper tyrannts ! " The future president was gradu- 
ated at William and Mary in 1807. At college he showed a 
strong interest in ancient history. He was also fond of poetry 
and music, and, like Thomas Jefferson, was a skilful performer 
on the violin. In 1809 he was admitted to the bar, and had al- 
ready begun to obtain a good practice when he was elected to 
the legislature, and took his seat in that body in December, 
181 1. He was here a firm supporter of Mr. Madison's adminis- 
tration, and the war with Great Britain, which soon followed, 
afforded him an opportunity to become conspicuous as a forci- 
ble and persuasive orator. One of his earliest public acts is 
especially interesting in view of the famous struggle with the 
Whigs, which in later years he conducted as president. The 
charter of the first Bank of the United States, established in 
1791, was to expire in twenty years; and m 181 1 the question 
of renewing the charter came before congress. The bank was 
very unpopular in Virginia, and the assembly of that state, by 
a vote of 125 to 35, instructed its senators at Washington, Rich- 
14 



196 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



arc! Brent and William B. Giles, to vote against a recharter. 
The instructions denounced the bank as an institution in the 
founding of which congress had exceeded its powers and grossly 
violated state rights. Yet there were many in congress who, 
without approving the principle upon which the bank was 
founded, thought the eve of war an inopportune season for 
making a radical change in the financial system of the nation. 
Of the two Virginia senators, Brent voted in favor of the re- 
charter, and Giles spoke on the same side, and although, in 
obedience to instructions, he voted contrary to his own opinion, 
he did so under protest. On 14 Jan., 1812, Mr. Tyler, m the 
Virginia legislature, introduced resolutions of censure, in which 
the senators were taken to task, while the Virginia doctrines, as 
to the unconstitutional character of the bank and the binding 
force of instructions, were formally asserted. 

Mr. Tyler married, 29 March, 1813, Letitia, daughter of 
Robert Christian, and a few weeks afterward was called into 
the field at the head of a company of militia to take part in the 
defence of Richmond and its neighborhood, now threatened by 
the British. This military service lasted for a month, during 
which Mr. Tyler's company was not called into action. He 
was re-elected to the legislature annually, until in November, 
1816, he was chosen to fill a vacancy in the U. S. house of rep- 
resentatives. In the regular election to the next congress, out 
of 200 votes given in his native county, he received all but one. 
As a member of congress he soon made himself conspicuous as 
a strict constructionist. When Mr. Calhoun introduced his bill 
in favor of internal improvements, Mr. Tyler voted against it. 
He opposed the bill for changing the per diem allowance of 
members of congress to an annual salary of $1,500. He 
opposed, as premature, Mr. Clay's proposal to add to the 
general appropriation bill a provision for $18,000 for a min- 
ister to the provinces of the La Plata, thus committnig the 
United States to a recognition of the independence of those 
revolted provinces. He also voted against the proposal for a 
national bankrupt act. He condemned, as arbitrary and in- 
subordinate, the course of Gen. Jackson in Florida, and con- 
tributed an able speech to the long debate over the question as 
to censuring that gallant commander. He was a member of a 
committee for inquiring into the affairs of the national bank, 
and his most elaborate speech was in favor of Mr. Trimble's 



JOHN TYLER. igj 

motion to issue a scire facias against that institution. On all 
these points Mr. Tyler's course seems to have pleased his con- 
stituents ; in the spring election of 1819 he did not consider it 
necessary to issue the usual circular address, or in any way to 
engage in a personal canvass. He simply distributed copies 
of his speech against the bank, and was re-elected to congress 
unanimously. 

The most important question that came before the i6th 
congress related to the admission of Missouri to the Union. 
In the debates over this question Mr. Tyler took ground 
against the imposition of any restrictions upon the extension 
of slavery. At the same time he declared himself on principle 
opposed to the perpetuation of slavery, and he sought to recon- 
cile these positions by the argument that in diffusing the slave 
population over a wide area the evils of the institution would 
bfe diminished and the prospects of ultimate emancipation in- 
creased. " Slavery," said he, " has been represented on all 
hands as a dark cloud, and the candor of the gentleman from 
Massachusetts [Mr. Whitman] drove him to the admission that 
it would be well to disperse this cloud. In this sentiment I en- 
tirely concur with him. How can you otherwise disarm it ? 
Will you suffer it to increase in its darkness over one particular 
portion of this land till its horrors shall burst upon it ? Will 
you permit the lightnings of its wrath to break upon the 
south, when by the interposition of a wise system of legislation 
you may reduce it to a summer's cloud ? " New York and 
Pennsylvania, he argued, had been able to emancipate their 
slaves only by reducing their number by exportation. Disper- 
sion, moreover, would be likely to ameliorate the condition of 
the black man, for by making his labor scarce in each particu- 
lar locality it would increase the demand for it and would thus 
make it the interest of the master to deal fairly and generously 
with his slaves. To the objection that the increase of the slave 
population would fully keep up with its territorial expansion, 
he replied by denying that such would be the case. His next 
argument was that if an old state, such as Virginia, could have 
slaves, while a new state, such as Missouri, was to be prevented 
by Federal authority from having them, then the old and new 
states would at once be placed upon a different footing, which 
was contrary to the spirit of the constitution. If congress 
could thus impose one restriction upon a state, where was the 



198 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



exercise of such a power to end ? Once grant such a power, 
and what was to prevent a slave-holding majority in congress 
from forcing slavery upon some territory where it was not want- 
ed ? Mr. Tyler pursued the argument so far as to deny "that 
congress, under its constitutional authority to establish rules 
and regulations for the territories, had any control whatever 
over slavery in the territorial domam." (See life, by Lyon G. 
Tyler, vol. i., p. 319.) Mr. Tyler was unquestionably foremost 
among the members of congress in occupying this position. 
When the Missouri compromise bill was adopted by a vote of 
134 to 42, all but five of the nays were from the south, and 
from Virginia alone there were seventeen, of which Mr. Tyler's 
vote was one. The Richmond " Enquirer" of 7 March, 1820, 
in denouncing the compromise, observed, in language of pro- 
phetic interest, that the southern and western representatives 
now " owe it to themselves to keep their eyes firmly fixed on 
Texas ; if we are cooped up on the north, we must have elbow- 
room to the west." 

Mr. Tyler's further action in this congress related chiefly to 
the question of a protective tariff, of which he was an unflinch- 
ing opponent. In 1821, finding his health seriously impaired, 
he declined a re-election, and returned to private life. His 
retirement, however, was of short duration, for in 1823 he was 
again elected to the Virginia legislature. Here, as' a friend to 
the candidacy of William H. Crawford for the presidency, he 
disapproved the attacks upon the congressional caucus begun 
by the legislature of Tennessee in the interests of Andrew 
Jackson. The next year he was nominated to fill the vacancy 
in the United States senate created by the death of John Tay- 
lor ; but Littleton W. Tazewell was elected over him. He op- 
posed the attempt to remove William and Mary college to 
Richmond, and was afterward made successively rector and 
chancellor of the college, which prospered signally under his 
management. In December, 1825, he was chosen by the legis- 
lature to the governorship of Virginia, and in the following 
year he was re-elected by a unanimous vote. A new division 
of parties was now beginning to show itself in national politics. 
The administration of John Quincy Adams had pronounced 
itself in favor of what was then, without much regard to history, 
■described as the " American system " of government banking, 
high tariffsj and internal improvements. Those persons who 



JOHN TYLER. I^q 

were inclined to a loose construction of the constitution were 
soon drawn to the side of the administration, while the strict 
constructionists were gradually united in opposition. Many 
members of Crawford's party, under the lead of John Ran- 
dolph, became thus united with the Jacksonians, while others, 
of whom Mr. Tyler was one of the most distinguished, main- 
tained a certain independence in opposition. It is to be set 
down to Mr. Tyler's credit that he never attached any impor- 
tance to the malicious story, believed by so many Jacksonians, 
of a corrupt bargain between Adams and Clay. Soon after 
the meeting of the Virginia legislature, in December, 1826, the 
friends of Clay and Adams combined with the opposite party 
who were dissatisfied with Randolph, and thus Mr. Tyler was 
elected to the U. S. senate by a majority of 115 votes to no. 
Some indiscreet friends of Jackson now attempted to show 
that there must have been some secret and reprehensible 
understanding between Tyler and Clay ; but this scheme failed 
completely. In the senate Mr. Tyler took a conspicuous stand 
against the so-called '• tariff of abominations " enacted in 1828, 
which Benton, Van Buren, and other prominent Jacksonians, 
not yet quite clear as to their proper attitude, were induced to 
support. There was thus some ground for the opinion enter- 
tained at this time by Tyler, that the Jacksonians were not 
really strict constructionists. In February, 1830, after taking 
part in the Virginia convention for revising the state constitu- 
tion, Mr. Tyler returned to his seat in the senate, and found 
himself first drawn toward Jackson by the veto message of the 
latter, 27 May, upon the Maysville turnpike bill. He attacked 
the irregularity of Jackson's appointment of commissioners to 
negotiate a commercial treaty with Turkey without duly inform- 
ing the senate. On the other hand, he voted m favor of con- 
firming the appointment of Van Buren as minister to Great 
Britain. In the presidential election of 1832 he supported 
Jackson as a less objectionable candidate than the others, Clay, 
Wirt, and Floyd. Mr. Tyler disapproved of nullification, and 
condemned the course of South Carolina as both unconstitu- 
tional and impolitic. At the same time he objected to Presi- 
dent Jackson's famous proclamation of 10 Dec, 1832, as a "tre- 
mendous engine of federalism," tending to the " consolidation " 
of the states into a single political body. Under the influence 
of these feelings he undertook to play the part of mediator be- 



200 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

tween Clay and Calhoun, and in that capacity earnestly sup- 
ported the compromise tariff mtroduced by the former in the 
senate, 12 Feb., 1833. On the so-called "force bill," clothing 
the president with extraordinary powers for the purpose of en- 
forcing the tariff law, Mr. Tyler showed that he had the cour- 
age of his convictions. When the bill was put to vote, 20 Feb., 
1833, some of its opponents happened to be absent ; others 
got up and went out in order to avoid putting themselves on 
record. The vote, as then taken, stood : yeas, thirty-two ; nay, 
one (John Tyler). 

As President Jackson's first term had witnessed a division 
in the Democratic party between the nullifiers led by Calhoun 
and the unconditional upholders of the Union, led by the 
president himself, with Benton, Blair, and Van Buren, so his 
second term witnessed a somewhat similar division arising out 
of the war upon the United States bank. The tendency of this 
fresh division was to bring Mr. Tyler and his friends nearer to 
co-operation with Mr. Calhoun, while at the same time it fur- 
nished points of contact that might, if occasion should offer, be 
laid hold of for the purpose of forming a temporary alliance 
with Mr. Clay and the National Republicans. The origin of 
the name "Whig," in its strange and anomalous application to 
the combination in 1834, is to be found in the fact that it 
pleased the fancy of President Jackson's opponents to repre- 
sent him as a kind of arbitrary tyrant. On this view it seemed 
proper that they should be designated " Whigs," and at first 
there were some attempts to discredit the supporters of the 
administration by calling them "Tories." On the question of 
the bank, when it came to the removal of the deposits, Mr. 
Tyler broke with the administration. Against the bank he had 
fought, on every fitting occasion, since the beginning of his 
public career. In 1834 he declared emphatically: " I believe 
the bank to be the original sin against the constitution, which, 
in the progress of our history, has called into existence a nu- 
merous progeny of usurpations. Shall I permit this serpent, 
however bright its scales or erect its mien, to exist by and 
through my vote ?" Nevertheless, strongly as he disapproved 
of the bank, Mr. Tyler disapproved still more strongly of the 
methods by which President Jackson assailed it. There seemed 
at that time to be growing up in the United States a spirit of 
extreme unbridled democracy quite foreign to the spirit in 



JOHN TYLER. 20I 

which our constitutional government, with its carefully arranged 
checks and limitations, was founded. It was a spirit that 
prompted mere majorities to insist upon having their way, even 
at the cost of overriding all constitutional checks and limits. 
This spirit possessed many members of Jackson's party, and it 
found expression in what Benton grotesquely called the"^<f- 
mos krateo" principle. A good illustration of it was to be seen 
in Benton's argument, after the election of 1824, that Jackson, 
having received a plurality of electoral votes, ought to be de- 
clared president, and that the house of representatives, in choos- 
ing Adams, was "defying the will of the people." 

In similar wise President Jackson, after his triumphant re- 
election in 1832, was inclined to interpret his huge majorities 
as meaning that the people were ready to uphold him in any 
course that he might see fit to pursue. This feeling no doubt 
strengthened him in his determined attitude toward the nulli- 
fiers, and it certainly contributed to his arbitrary and overbear- 
ing method of dealing with the bank, culminating in 1833 in 
his removal of the deposits. There was ground for maintain- 
ing that in this act the president exceeded his powers, and it 
seemed to illustrate the tendency of unbridled democracy to- 
ward despotism, under the leadership of a headstrong and 
popular chief. Mr. Tyler saw in it such a tendency, and he be- 
lieved that the only safeguard for constitutional government, 
whether against the arbitrariness of Jackson or the latitudina- 
rianism of the National Republicans, lay in a most rigid ad- 
herence to strict constructionist doctrines. Accordingly, in 
his speech of 24 Feb., 1834, he proposed to go directly to the 
root of the matter and submit the question of a national bank 
to the people in the shape of a constitutional amendment, 
either expressly forbidding or expressly allowing congress to 
create such an institution. According to his own account, he 
found Clay and Webster ready to co-operate with him in this 
course, while Calhoun held aloof. Nothing came of the proj- 
ect : but it is easy to see in Mr. Tyler's attitude at this time 
the basis for a short-lived alliance with the National Republic- 
ans, whenever circumstances should suggest it. On Mr. Clay's 
famous resolution to censure the president he voted in the 
affirmative. In the course of 1835 the seriousness of the schism 
in the Democratic party was fully revealed. Not only had the 
small body of nullifiers broken away, under the lead of Cal- 



202 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



houn, but a much larger party was formed in the southern 
states under the appellation of " state-rights Whigs." They 
differed with the National Republicans on the fundamental 
questions of tariff, bank, and internal improvements, and 
agreed with them only in opposition to Jackson as an alleged 
violator of the constitution. Even in this opposition they dif- 
fered from the party of Webster and Clay, for they grounded 
it largely upon a theory of state rights which the latter states- 
men had been far from accepting. The " state-rights Whigs " 
now nominated Hugh L. White, of Tennessee, for president, 
and John Tyler for vice-president. The National Republicans, 
wishing to gather votes from the other parties, nominated for 
president Gen. William H. Harrison as a more colorless candi- 
date than Webster or Clay. The Democratic followers of Jack- 
son nominated Van Buren, who received a large majority of 
both popular and electoral votes, in spite of the defections 

above mentioned. There was a 
great deal of bolting in this elec- 
tion. Massachusetts threw its 
vote for Webster for president, 
and South Carolina for Willie P. 
Mangum. Virginia, which voted 
for Van Buren, rejected his col- 
league, Richard M. Johnson, and 
cast its twenty-three electoral 
votes for William Smith, of Ala- 
bama, for vice-president. Mr. 
AVhite obtained the electoral votes of Tennessee and Georgia, 
twenty-six in all, but Mr. Tyler made a better showing; he 
carried, besides these two states, Maryland and South Carolina, 
making forty-seven votes in all. The unevenness of the results 
was such that the election of a vice-president devolved upon 
the senate, which chose Mr. Johnson. In the course of the 
year preceding the election an incident occurred which empha- 
sized more than ever Mr. Tyler's hostility to the Jackson party. 
Benton's famous resolutions for expunging the vote of censure 
upon the president were before the senate, and the Democratic 
legislature of Virginia instructed the two senators from that 
state to vote in the affirmative. As to the binding force of 
such instructions Mr. Tyler had long ago, in the case of Giles 
and Brent, above mentioned, placed himself unmistakably upon 




JOHN TYLER. 203 

record. His colleague, Benjamin Watkins Leigh, was known 
to entertain similar views. On receiving the instructions, both 
senators refused to obey them. Both voted against the Benton 
resolutions, but Mr. Leigh kept his seat, while Mr. Tyler re- 
signed and returned home, 29 Feb., 1836. About this time the 
followers of Calhoun were bringing forward what was known 
as the " gag resolution " against all petitions and motions re- 
lating in any way to the abolition of slavery. Mr. Tyler's 
resignation occurred before this measure was adopted, but his 
opinions on the subject were clearly pronounced. He con- 
demned the measure as impolitic, because it yoked together 
the question as to the right of petition and the question as to 
slavery, and thus gave a distinct moral advantage to the Abo- 
litionists. On the seventh anniversary of the Virginia coloni- 
zation society, 10 Jan., 1838, he was chosen its president. In 
the spring election of that year he was returned to the Virginia 
legislature. In January, 1839, his friends put him forward for 
re-election to the U. S. senate, and in the memorable contest 
that ensued, in which William C. Rives was his principal com- 
petitor, the result was a deadlock, and the question was in- 
definitely postponed before any choice had been made. 

Meanwhile the financial crisis of 1837 — the most severe, in 
many respects, that has ever been known in this country — had 
wrecked the administration of President Van Buren. The 
causes of that crisis, indeed, lay deeper than any acts of any 
administration. The primary cause was the sudden develop- 
ment of wild speculation in western lands, consequent upon the 
rapid building of railroads, which would probably have brought 
about a general prostration of credit, even if President Jackson 
had never made war upon the United States bank. But there 
is no doubt that some measures of Jackson's administration — 
such as the removal of the deposits and their lodgment in the 
so-called " pet banks," the distribution of the surplus followed 
by the sudden stoppage of distribution, and the sharpness of the 
remedy supplied by the specie circular — had much to do with 
the virulence of the crisis. For the moment it seemed to many 
people that all the evil resulted from the suppression of the 
bank, and that the proper cure was the reinstatement of the bank, 
and because President Van Buren was too wise and clear-sight- 
ed to lend his aid to such a policy, his chances for re-election 
were ruined. The cry for the moment was that the hard-heart- 



204 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



ed administration was doing nothing to relieve the distress of 
the people, and there was a general combination against Van 
Buren. For the single purpose of defeating him, all differ- 
ences of policy were for the moment subordinated. In the Whig 
convention at Harrisburg, 4 Dec, 1839, no platform of princi- 
ples was adopted. Gen. Harrison was again nominated for the 
presidency, as a candidate fit to conciliate the anti-Masons and 
National Republicans whom Clay had offended, and Mr. Tyler 
was nominated for the vice-presidency in order to catch the 
votes of such Democrats as were dissatisfied with the adminis- 
tration. In the uproarious canvass that followed there was 
probably less appeal to sober reason and a more liberal use of 
clap-trap than in any other presidential contest in our history. 
Borne upon a great wave of popular excitement, " Tippecanoe, 
and Tyler too," were carried to the White House. By the 
death of President Harrison, 4 April, 1841, just a month after 
the inauguration, Mr. Tyler became president of the United 
States. The situation thus developed was not long in produc- 
ing startling results. Although no platform had been adopted 
in the nominating convention, it soon appeared that Mr. Clay 
and his friends intended to use their victory in support of the 
old National Republican policy of a national bank, a high tariff, 
and internal improvements. Unquestionably many people who 
voted for Harrison did so in the belief that his election meant 
the victory of Clay's doctrines and the re-establishment of the 
United States bank. Mr. Clay's own course, immediately after 
the inauguration, showed so plainly that he regarded the elec- 
tion as his own victory that Gen. Harrison felt called upon to 
administer a rebuke to him. " You seem to forget, sir," said 
he, " that it is I who am president." 

Tyler, on the other hand, regarded the Whig triumph as 
signifying the overthrow of what he considered a corrupt and 
tyrannical faction led by Jackson, Van Buren, and Benton ; he 
professed to regard the old National Republican doctrines as 
virtually postponed by the alliance between them and his own 
followers. In truth, it was as ill-yoked an alliance as ever was 
made. The elements of a fierce quarrel were scarcely con- 
cealed, and the removal of President Harrison was all that was 
needed to kindle the flames of strife. " Tyler dares not resist," 
said Clay ; " I'll drive him before me." On the other hand, the 
new president declared : " I pray you to believe that my back 



JOHN TYLER. 205 

is to the wall, and that, while I shall deplore the assaults, I 
shall, if practicable, beat back the assailants "; and he was as 
good as his word. Congress met in extra session, 31 May, 
1841, the senate standing 28 Whigs to 22 Democrats, the house 
133 Whigs to 108 Democrats. In his opening message Presi- 
dent Tyler briefly recounted the recent history of the United 
States bank, the sub-treasury system, and other financial 
schemes, and ended with the precautionary words : " I shall be 
ready to concur with you in the adoption of such system as 
you may propose, reserving to myself the ultimate power of re- 
jecting any measure which may, in my view of it, conflict with 
the constitution or otherwise jeopard the prosperity of the 
countrj% a power which I could not part with, even if I would, 
but which I will not believe any act of yours will call into 
requisition." Congress disregarded the warning. The ground 
was cleared for action by a bill for abolishing Van Buren's sub- 
treasury system, which passed both houses and was signed by 
the president. But an amendment offered by Mr. Clay, for the 
repeal of the law of 1836 regulating the deposits in the state 
banks, was defeated by the votes of a small party led by Wil- 
liam C. Rives. The great question then came up. On con- 
stitutional grounds, Mr. Tyler's objection to the United States 
bank had always been that congress had no power to create 
such a corporation within the limits of a state without the con- 
sent of the state ascertained beforehand. He did not deny, 
however, the power of congress to establish a district bank for 
the District of Columbia, and, provided the several states should 
consent, there seemed to be no reason why this district bank 
should not set up its branch offices all over the country. Mr. 
Clay's so-called " fiscal bank " bill of 1841 did not make proper 
provision for securing the assent of the states, and on that 
ground Mr. Rives proposed an amendment substituting a clause 
of a bill suggested by Thomas Ewing, secretary of the treasury, 
to the effect that such assent should be formally secured. Mr. 
Rives's amendment was supported not only by several " state- 
rights Whigs," but also by senators Richard H. Bayard and 
Rufus Choate, and other friends of Mr. Webster. If adopted, 
its effect would have been conciliatory, and it might perhaps 
have averted for a moment the rupture between the ill-yoked 
allies. The Democrats, well aware of this, voted against the 
amendment, and it was lost. The bill incorporating the fiscal 



2o6 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

bank of the United States was then passed by both houses, and 
on i6 Aug. was vetoed. An attempt to pass the bill over the 
veto failed of the requisite two-third majority. 

The Whig leaders had already shown a disposition to en- 
trap the president. Before the passage of Mr. Clay's bill, John 
Minor Botts was sent to the White House with a private sug- 
gestion for a compromise. Mr. Tyler refused to listen to the 
suggestion except with the understanding that, should it meet 
with his disapproval, he should not hear from it again. The 
suggestion turned out to be a proposal that congress should 
authorize the establishment of branches of the district bank in 
any state of which the legislature at its very next session should 
not expressly refuse its consent to any such proceeding ; and 
that, moreover, in case the interests of the public should seem 
to require it, even such expressd refusal might be disregarded 
and overridden. By this means the obnoxious institution 
might first be established in the Whig states, and then forced 
upon the Democratic states in spite of themselves. The presi- 
dent indignantly rejected the suggestion as "a contemptible 
subterfuge, behind which he would not skulk." The device, 
nevertheless, became incorporated in Mr. Clay's bill, and it was 
pretended that it was put there in order to smooth the way for 
the president to adopt the measure, but that in his unreason- 
able obstinacy he refused to avail himself of the opportunity. 
After his veto of i6 Aug. these tortuous methods were renewed. 
Messengers went to and fro between the president and mem- 
bers of his cabinet on the one hand, and leading Whig mem- 
bers of congress on the other, conditional assurances were 
translated into the indicative mood, whispered messages were 
magnified and distorted, and presently appeared upon the 
scene an outline of a bill that it was assumed the president 
would sign. This new measure was known as the "fiscal cor- 
poration " bill. Like the fiscal bank bill, it created a bank in 
the District of Columbia, with branches throughout the states, 
and it made no proper provision for the consent of the states. 
The president had admitted that a '• fiscal agency " of the 
United States government, established in Washington for the 
purpose of collecting, keeping, and disbursing the public reve- 
nue, was desirable if not indispensable ; a regular bank of dis- 
count, engaged in commercial transactions throughout the 
states, and having the United States government as its princi- 



JOHN TYLER. 20/ 

pal share-holder and Federal officers exerting a controlling in- 
fluence upon its directorship, was an entirely different affair — 
something, in his opinion, neither desirable nor permissible. 
In the " fiscal corporation " bill an attempt was made to hood- 
wink the president and the public by a pretence of forbidding 
discounts and loans and limiting the operations of the fiscal 
agency exclusively to exchanges. While this project was ma- 
turing, the Whig newspapers fulminated with threats against 
the president in case he should persist in his course ; private 
letters warned him of plots to assassinate him, and Mr. Clay 
in the senate referred to his resignation in 1836, and asked 
why, if constitutional scruples again hindered him from obey- 
ing the will of the people, did he not now resign his lofty posi- 
tion and leave it for those who could be more compliant ? To 
this it was aptly replied by Mr. Rives that "the president was 
an independent branch of the government as well as congress, 
and was not called upon to resign because he differed in opin- 
ion with them." Some of the Whigs seem really to have hoped 
that such a storm could be raised as would browbeat the presi- 
dent into resigning, whereby the government would be tempo- 
rarily left in the hands of William L. Southard, then president 
pro tempore of the senate. But Mr. Tyler was neither to be 
hoodwinked nor bullied. The "fiscal corporation" bill was 
passed by the senate on Saturday, 4 Sept., 1841 ; on Thursday, 
the 9th, the president's veto message was received ; on Satur- 
day, the nth, Thomas Ewing, secretary of the treasury, John 
Bell, secretary of war, George E. Badger, secretary of the navy, 
John J. Crittenden, attorney-general, and Francis Granger, post- 
master-general, resigned their places.* The adjournment of 



* John Tyler, Jr., the son and private secretary of President Tyler, speaking 
to a friend of his father's hold-over cabinet, said : " When my father succeeded 
to the presidency he continued Harrison's cabinet in office until he found that 
they were vi'orking against him. His first cabinet meeting was held on the day 
succeeding the death of President Harrison, and it was perhaps the most re- 
markable cabinet meeting in history. When all the members were present and 
the doors were closed Daniel Webster, the secretary of state, arose and ad- 
dressed my father, saying : ' Mr. President, I suppose you intend to carry out 
the ideas and customs of your predecessor, and that this administration, inaugu- 
rated by President Harrison, will continue in the same line of policy on which 
it has begun. Am I right ? ' 

" My father, much astonished, nodded his head almost involuntarily and 



2o8 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

congress had been fixed for Monday, the 13th, and it was hoped 
that, suddenly confronted by a unanimous resignation of the 
cabinet and confused by want of time in which to appoint a new 
cabinet, the president would give up the game. But the resigna- 
tion was not unanimous, for Daniel Webster, secretary of state, 
remained at his post, and on Monday morning the president 
nominated Walter Forward, of Pennsylvania, for secretary of 
the treasury; John McLean, of Ohio, for secretary of war; 
Abel P. Upshur, of Virginia, for secretary of the navy ; Hugh 
S. Legare, of South Carolina, for attorney-general ; and Charles 
A. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, for postmaster-general. These ap- 
pointments were duly confirmed. 

Whether the defection of Mr. Webster at this moment 
would have been so fatal to the president as some of the Whigs 
were inclined to believe, may well be questioned, but there can 
be no doubt that his adherence to the president was of great 
value. By remaining in the cabinet Mr. Webster showed him- 
self too clear-sighted to contribute to a victory of which the 
whole profit would be reaped by his rival, Mr. Clay, and the 
president was glad to retain his hold upon so strong an ele- 
ment in the north as that which Mr. Webster represented. 
Some of the leading Whig members of congress now issued 
addresses to the people, in which they loudly condemned the 
conduct of the president and declared that "all political con- 



looked at Mr. Webster with wonder. Daniel Webster straightened himself up 
at this and continued : 

" ' Mr. President, it was the custom in our cabinet meetings of President 
Harrison that he should preside over them. All measures relating to the ad- 
ministration were to be brought before the cabinet. and their settlement was to 
be decided by the majority of votes, each member of the cabinet and the presi- 
dent having but one vote.' 

" My father was always courteous, but he was also firm. He rose to his feet, 
and looking about the cabinet apartment he said : ' Gentlemen, I am very proud 
to have in my cabinet such able statesmen as you have proved yourselves to be. 
I shall be pleased to avail myself of your counsel and advice, but I can never 
consent to being dictated to as to what I shall or shall not do. I am the presi- 
dent, and I shall be held responsible for my administration. I hope I shall 
have your hearty co-operation in carrying out its measures. So long as you see 
fit to do this I shall be glad to have you with me. When you think otherwise 
I will be equally glad to receive your resignation.' This," concluded Mr. Tyler, 
" settled the question, and there was no further trouble as to who was the head 
of the cabinet." — Editor, 



JOHN TYLER. 209 

nection between them and John Tyler was at an end from that 
day forth." It was open war between the two departments of 
government. Although many Whig members, like Preston, 
Talmadge, Johnson, and Marshall, really sympathized with Mr. 
Tyler, only a few, commonly known as "the corporal's guard," 
openly recognized him as their leader. But the Democratic 
members came to his support as an ally against the Whigs. 
The state elections of 1841 showed some symptoms of a reac- 
tion in favor of the president's views, for in general the Whigs 
lost ground in them. As the spectre of the crisis of 1837 faded 
away in the distance, the people began to recover from the 
sudden and overmastering impulse that had swept the country 
in 1840, and the popular enthusiasm for the bank soon died 
away. Mr. Tyler had really won a victory of the first magni- 
tude, as was conclusively shown in 1844, when the presidential 
platform of the Whigs was careful to make no allusion what- 
ever to the bank. On this crucial question the doctrines of 
paternal government had received a crushing and permanent 
defeat. In the next session of congress the strife with the 
president was renewed; but it was now tariff, not bank, that 
furnished the subject of discussion. Diminished importations, 
due to the general prostration of business, had now dimin- 
ished the revenue until it was insufficient to meet the ex- 
penses of government. The Whigs accordingly carried 
through congress a bill continuing the protective duties 
of 1833, and providing that the surplus revenue, which was 
thus sure soon to accumulate, should be distributed among the 
states. But the compromise act of 1833, in which Mr. Tyler 
had played an important part, had provided that the protective 
policy should come to an end in 1842. Both on this ground, 
and because of the provision for distributing the surplus, the 
president vetoed the new bill. Congress then devised and 
passed another bill, providing for a tariff for revenue, with in- 
cidental protection, but still contemplating a distribution of 
the surplus, if there should be any. The president vetoed this 
bill. Congress received the veto message with great indigna- 
tion, and in the motion of ex-President John Q. Adams it was 
referred to a committee, which condemned it as an unwarrant- 
able assumption of power, and after a caustic summary of Mr, 
Tyler's acts since his accession to office, concluded with'a ref- 
erence to impeachment. This report called forth from the 



2IO LIVES OF THE PRESIDEA'TS. 

president a formal protest ; but the victory was already his. 
The Whigs were afraid to go before the country in the autumn 
elections with the tariff question unsettled, and the bill was ac- 
cordingly passed by both houses, without the distributing clause, 
and was at once signed by the president. The distributing clause 
was then passed in a separate bill, but a " pocket veto " dis- 
posed of it. Congress adjourned on 31 Aug., 1842, and in the 
elections the Whig majority of twenty-five in the house of rep- 
resentatives gave place to a Democratic majority of sixty-one. 
On the remaining question of National Republican policy, 
that of internal improvements, the most noteworthy action of 
President Tyler was early in 1844, when two river-and-harbor 
bills were passed by congress, the one relating to the eastern, 
the other to the western states. Mr. Tyler vetoed the former, 
but signed the latter, on the ground that the Mississippi river, 
as a great common highway for the commerce of the whole 
country, was the legitimate concern of the national government 
in a sense that was not true of any other American river. An 
unsuccessful attempt was made to pass the other bill over the 
veto. The rest of Mr. Tyler's administration was taken up with 
the Ashburton treaty with Great Britain, the Oregon question, 
and the annexation of Texas. Texas had won its independence 
from Mexico in 1836, and its governor, as well as the majority 
of its inhabitants, were citizens of the United States. From a 
broad national standpoint it was in every way desirable that 
Texas, as well as Oregon, should belong to our Federal Union. 
In the eastern states there was certainly a failure to appreciate 
the value of Oregon, which was nevertheless claimed as indis- 
putably our property. On the other hand, it was felt, by a cer- 
tain element in South Carolina, that if the northern states were 
to have ample room for expansion beyond the Rocky moun- 
tains, the southern states must have Texas added to their num- 
ber as a counterpoise, or else the existence of slavery would 
be imperilled, and these fears were strengthened by the growth 
of anti-slavery sentiment at the north. The Whigs, who by 
reason of their tariff policy found their chief strength at the 
north, were disposed to avail themselves of this anti-slavery 
sentiment, and accordingly declared themselves opposed to the 
annexation of Texas. In the mean time the political pressure 
brought to bear upon Mr. Webster in Massachusetts induced 
resignation of his portfolio, and he was succeeded in the state 



1^ i\., n 




JOHN TYLER. 211 

department by Hugh S. Legare, 9 May, 1843. I'"* ^ few weeks 
Legare was succeeded by Mr. Upshur, after whose death, on 
28 Feb., 1844, the place was filled by John C. Calhoun. After 
a negotiation extending over two years, a treaty was concluded, 
12 April, 1844, with the government of Texas, providing for 
annexation. The treaty was rejected by the senate, by a vote 
of 35 to 16, all the Whigs and seven Democrats voting in the 
negative. Thus by the summer of 1844 the alliance between 
the Whig party and Mr. Tyler's wing of the Democrats had 
passed away. At the same time the division among the Demo- 
crats, which had become marked during Jackson's administra- 
tion, still continued; and while the opposition to Mr. Tyler 
was strong enough to prevent his nomination in the Democratic 
national convention, which met at Baltimore on 27 May, 1844, 
on the other hand he was able to prevent the nomination of 
Mr. Van Buren, who had declared himself opposed to the 
immediate annexation of Texas. The result was the nomi- 
nation of James K. Polk, as a kind of compromise candidate, 
in so far as he belonged to the " loco-foco " wing of the party, 
but was at the same time in favor of annexation On the same 
day, 27 May, another convention at Baltimore nominated Mr. 
Tyler for a second term. He accepted the nomination in order 
to coerce the Democrats into submitting to him and his friends 
a formal invitation to re-enter the ranks; and accordingly a 
meeting of Democrats at the Carleton house, New York, on 6 
Aug., adopted a series of resolutions commending the principal 
acts of his administration, and entreating that in the general 
interests of the opposition he should withdraw. In response 
to this appeal, Mr. Tyler accordingly withdrew his name. The 
northern opposition to the annexation of Texas seemed to 
have weakened the strength of the Whigs in the south, and 
their candidate, Henry Clay, declared himself willing to see 
Texas admitted at some future time. But this device cut both 
ways ; for while it was popular in the south, and is supposed 
to have acquired for Clay many pro-slavery votes, carrying 
for him Tennessee, North Carolina, Delaware, and Maryland 
by bare majorities, it certainly led many anti-slavery Whigs to 
throw away their votes upon the " Liberty " candidate, James 
G. Birney, and thus surrender New York to the Democrats. 
The victory of the Democrats in November was reflected in 
the course pursued in the ensuing congress. One of the party 
15 



212 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

watchwords, in reference to the Oregon question, had been 
" fifty-four forty, or fight," and the house of representatives 
now proceeded to pass a bill organizing a territorial govern- 
ment for Oregon up to that parallel of latitude. The senate, 
however, laid the bill upon the table, because it prohibited slav- 
ery m the territory. A joint resolution for the annexation of 
Texas was passed by both houses. Proposals for prohibiting 
slavery there were defeated, and the affair was arranged by 
extending the Missouri compromise-line westward through the 
Texan territory to be acquired by the annexation. North of 
that line slavery was to be prohibited ; south of it the question 
was to be determined by the people living on the spot. The 
resolutions were signed by President Tyler, and instructions in 
accordance therewith were despatched by him to Texas on the 
last day of his term of office, 3 March, 1845. The friends of 
annexation defended the constitutionality of this proceedmg, 
and the opponents denounced it. 

After leaving the White House, Mr. Tyler took up his resi- 
dence on an estate that he had purchased three miles from 
Greenway, on the bank of James river. To this estate he gave 
the name of ** Sherwood Forest," and there he lived the rest of 
his life. (See illustration on page 202.) In a letter published 
in the Richmond " Enquirer " on 17 Jan., 1861, he recommend- 
ed a convention of border states — including New Jersey, Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, as well as Delaware, 
Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri — for 
the purpose of devising some method of adjusting the difficul- 
ties brought on by the secession of South Carolina. The 
scheme adopted by this convention was to be submitted to the 
other states, and, if adopted, was to be incorporated into the 
Federal constitution. In acting upon Mr. Tyler's suggestion, 
the Virginia legislature enlarged it into a proposal of a peace 
convention to be composed of delegates from all the states. 
At the same time Mr. Tyler was appointed a commissioner to 
President Buchanan, while Judge John Robertson was appoint- 
ed commissioner to the state of South Carolina, the object be- 
ing to persuade both parties to abstain from any acts of hos- 
tility until the proposed peace convention should have had an 
opportunity to meet and discuss the situation. In discharge 
of this mission Mr. Tyler arrived on 23 Jan. in Washington. 
President Buchanan declined to give any assurances, but in his 



JOHN TYLER. 21 3 

message to congress, on 28 Jan., he deprecated a hasty resort 
to hostile measures. The peace convention, consisting of dele- 
gates from thirteen northern and seven border states, met at 
Washington on 4 Feb. and chose Mr. Tyler as its president. 
Several resolutions were adopted and reported to congress, 27 
Feb. ; but on 2 March they were rejected in the senate by a vote 
of 28 to 7, and two days later, the house adjourned without 
having taken a vote upon them. On 28 Feb., anticipating the 
fate of the resolutions in congress, Mr. Tyler made a speech on 
the steps of the Exchange hotel in Richmond, and declared his 
belief that no arrangement could be made, and that nothing 
was left for Virginia but to act promptly in the exercise of her 
powers as a sovereign state. The next day he took his seat 
in the State convention, where he advocated the immediate 
passing of an ordinance of secession. His attitude seems to 
have been substantially the same that it had been twenty-eight 
years before, when he disapproved the heresy of nullification, 
but condemned with still greater emphasis the measures taken 
by President Jackson to suppress that heresy. This feeling 
that secession was unadvisable, but coercion wholly indefensi- 
ble, was shared by Mr. Tyler with many people in the border 
states. On the removal of the government of the southern 
Confederacy from Montgomery to Richmond, in May, 1861, he 
was unanimously elected a member of the provisional congress 
of the Confederate states. In the following autumn he was 
elected to the permanent congress, but he died before taking 
his seat. He was buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, 
where as yet his grave, near that of James Monroe, is, strange 
to say, unmarked.* His biography has been ably written by 
Lyon Gardiner Tyler, "The Letters and Times of the Tylers " 
(2 vols., Richmond, i884-'5). See also "Seven Decades of the 
Union," by Henry A. Wise (Philadelphia, 1872). 



* Mr. Tyler was interred with great honors in what is known as the Presi- 
dents' Section, being about ten yards to the east of the grave of Monroe. When 
the writer visited the cemetery, in 1893, no stone marked his own or Mrs. Julia 
Tyler's grave. Before the war Virginia passed resolutions authorizing the gov- 
ernor to erect an appropriate monument from the funds of the state, but owing 
to the condition of her finances this has not yet been done. By his will Mr. 
Tyler's remains were to be buried at his home, Sherwood Forest, in Charles 
City County, and but for Virginia's interposition his family would long since 
have erected a suitable monument to his memory. — Editor. 



214 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



His wife, Letitia Christian, born at Cedar Grove, New 
Kent CO., Va., 12 Nov., 1790 ; died in Washington, D. C, 9 
Sept., 1842, was the daughter of Robert Christian, a planter in 
New Kent county, Va. She married Mr. Tyler on 29 March, 
1813, and removed with him to his home in Charles City coun- 
ty. When he became president she accompanied him to Wash- 
ington ; but her health was delicate, and she died shortly after- 
ward. Mrs. Tyler was unable to assume any social cares, and 
the duties of mistress of the White House devolved upon her 
daughter-in-law, Mrs. Robert Tyler. She possessed great 
beauty of person and of character, and, before the failure of 
her health, was especially fitted for a social life. 

Their son, Robert, born in New Kent county, Va., in 1818; 
died in Montgomery, Ala., 3 Dec, 1877, was educated at Wil- 
liam and Mary, and adopted the profession of law. He mar- 
ried Priscilla, a daughter of Thomas Apthorpe Cooper, the 
tragedian, in 1839, and when his father became president his 
wife assumed the duties of mistress of the White House till 
after Mrs. John Tyler's death, when they devolved upon her 
daughter, Mrs. Letitia Semple. Mr. Tyler removed to Phila- 
delphia in 1843, practised law there, and held several civil of- 
fices. In 1844 he was elected president of the Irish repeal asso- 
ciation. A little later he became prothonotary of the supreme 
court of Pennsylvania, and in 1858 he was chairman of the 
Democratic executive committee of the state. He removed to 
Richmond at the beginning of the civil war, and was appointed 
register of the treasury. After the war he edited the " Mail 
and Advertiser " in Montgomery, Ala. He published " Ahas- 
uerus," a poem (New York, 1842); "Death, or Medora's 
Dream," a poem (1843); "Is Virginia a Repudiating State? 
and the States' Guarantee," two letters (Richmond, Va., 1858). 

President Tyler's second wife, Julia Gardiner, born on 
Gardiner's island, near Easthampton, N. Y., 4 May, 1820; died 
in Richmond, Va., 10 July, 1889, was a descendant of the Gar- 
diners of Gardiner's island. She was educated at the Chegary 
institute. New York city, spent several months in Europe, and 
in the winter of 1844 accompanied her father to Washington, 
D. C. A few weeks afterward he was killed by the explosion 
of a gun on the war-steamer " Princeton," which occurred dcr- 




JOHN TYLER. 215 

ing a pleasure excursion in which he and his daughter were of 
the presidential party. His body was taken to the White House, 
and Miss Gardiner, being thrown in the society of the presi- 
dent under these peculiar circum- 
stances, became the object of his 
marked attention, which resulted in 
their marriage in New York city, 26 
June, 1844. For the succeeding eight 
months she presided over the White 
House with dignity and grace, her 
residence there terminating with a 
birth-night ball on 22 Feb., 1845. 
Mrs. Tyler retired with her husband 
to " Sherwood Forest " in Virginia ^'^ /f /P /V ^ 

the conclusion of his term, and after ^--y/ i<^c<^<i^ C/ '<^;^ce<i»-s 
the civil war resided for several years 

at her mother's residence on Castleton Hill, Staten island, and 
subsequently in Richmond, Va. She was a convert to Roman 
Catholicism, was devoted to the charities of that church, and is 
buried by the side of her husband in Hollywood Cemetery. 

Her son, Lyon Gardiner, born in Charles City county, Va., 
12 Aug. 1853, was graduated at the University of Virginia in 
1875, ^"^ then studied law. During his college course he was 
elected orator of the Jefferson society, and obtained a scholar- 
ship as best editor of the "Virginia University Magazine." In 
January, 1877, he was elected professor of belles-lettres in 
William and Mary college, which place he held until November, 
1878, when he became head of a high-school in Memphis, Tenn. 
He settled in Richmond, Va., in 1882, and entered on the prac- 
tice of law, also taking an active interest in politics. He was 
a candidate for the house of delegates in 1885, and again in 
1887, when he was elected. In that body he advocated the bills 
to establish a labor bureau, to regulate child labor, and to aid 
William and Mary college. In 1888 he was elected president 
of the college, which office he now fills. He has published 
"The Letters and Times of the Tylers" (2 vols., Richmond, 
i884-'5) ■) "Parties and Patronage in the United States " (New 
York, 1891); and he is the editor of the "William and Mary 
College Quarterly," established in 1892. 



JAMES K. POLK. 

James Knox Polk, eleventh president of the United States, 
born in Mecklenburg county, N. C, 2 Nov., 1795; ^i^^ in 
Nashville, Tenn., 15 June, 1849. He was a son of Samuel 
Polk, whose father, Ezekiel, was a brother of Col. Thomas, 
grandson of Robert Polk, or Pollock, who was born in Ireland 
and emigrated to the United States. His mother was Jane, 
daughter of James Knox, a resident of Iredell county, N. C, 
and a captain in the war of the Revolution. His father, Sam- 
uel, a farmer, removed in the autumn of 1806 to the rich valley 
of Duck river, a tributary of the Tennessee, and made a new 
home in a section that was erected the following year into the 
county of Maury. Besides cultivating the tract of land he had 
purchased, Samuel at intervals followed the occupation of a 
surveyor, acquired a fortune equal to his wants, and lived un- 
til 1827. His son James was brought up on the farm, and not 
only assisted in its management, but frequently accompanied 
his father in his surveying expeditions, during which they were 
often absent for weeks. He was inclined to study, often busied 
himself with his father's mathematical calculations, and was 
fond of reading. He was sent to school, and had succeeded in 
mastering the English branches when ill health compelled his 
removal. He was then placed with a merchant, but having a 
strong dislike to commercial pursuits, he obtained permission 
to return home after a few weeks' trial, and in July, 1813, was 
given in charge of a private tutor. In 1815 he entered the 
sophomore class at the University of North Carolina, of which 
institution his cousin, William, was a trustee. As a student 
young Polk was correct, punctual, and industrious. At his 
graduation in 1818 he was officially acknowledged to be the 
best scholar in both the classics and mathematics, and de- 
livered the Latin salutatory. In 1847 the university conferred 
upon him the degree of LL. D. In 1819 he entered the law- 




q/<^ 



<:^C.''Ply\^--€yy 



^Oc 



L.APPLETOir&C? 



JAMES K. POLK. 21/ 

office of Felix Grundy, who was then at the head of the Ten- 
nessee bar. While pursuing his legal studies he attracted the 
attention of Andrew Jackson, who soon afterward was appoint- 
ed governor of the territory of Florida. An intimacy was thus 
begun between the two men that in after-years greatly influ- 
enced the course of at least one of them. In 1820 Mr. Polk 
was admitted to the bar, and established himself at Columbia, 
the county-seat of Maury county. Here he attained such 
immediate success as falls to the lot of few, his career at the 
bar only ending with his election to the governorship in 1839. 
At times he practised alone, while at others he was associated 
successively with several of the leading practitioners of the 
state. Among the latter may be mentioned Aaron V. Brown 
and Gideon J. Pillow. 

Brought up as a Jeffersonian, and early taking an interest 
in politics, Mr. Polk was frequently heard in public as an ex- 
ponent of the views of his party. So popular was his style of 
oratory that his services soon came to be in great demand, and 
he was not long in earning the title of the " Napoleon of the 
Stump." He was, however, an argumentative rather than a 
rhetorical speaker, and convinced his hearers by plainness of 
statement and aptness of illustration, ignoring the ad-captandum 
effects usually resorted to in political harangues. His first 
public employment was that of chief clerk to the Tennessee 
house of representatives, and in 1823 he canvassed the district 
to secure his own election to that body. During his two years 
in the legislature he was regarded as one of its most promising 
members. His ability and shrewdness in debate, his business 
tact, combined with his firmness and industry, secured for him 
a high reputation. While a member of the general assembly 
he obtained the passage of a law to prevent the then common 
practice of duelling, and, although he resided in a community 
where that mode of settling disputes was generally approved, 
he was never concerned in an "affair of honor," either as prin- 
cipal or as second. In August, 1825, he was elected to congress 
from the Duck river district, in which he resided, by a flatter- 
ing majority, and re-elected at every succeeding election until 
1839, when he withdrew from the contest to become a candidate 
for governor. On taking his seat as a member of the 19th con- 
gress, he found himself, with one or two exceptions, the young 
est member of that body. The same habits of laborious applica- 



2i8 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

lion that had previously characterized him were now displayed 
on the floor of the house and in the committee-room. He was 
prominently connected with every leading question, and upon 
all he struck what proved to be the key-note for the action of 
his party. During the whole period of President Jackson's 
administration he was one of its leading supporters, and at 
times, on certain issues of paramount importance, its chief 
reliance. His maiden speech was made in defence of the pro- 
posed amendment to the constitution, giving the choice of presi- 
dent and vice-president directly to the people. It was distin- 
guished by clearness and force, copiousness of research, wealth 
of illustration, and cogency of argument, and at once placed its 
author in the front rank of congressional debaters. During the 
same session Mr. Polk attracted attention by his vigorous oppo- 
sition to the appropriation for the Panama mission. President 
Adams had appointed commissioners to attend a congress pro- 
posed to be held at Panama by delegates appointed by differ 
ent Spanish-American states, which, although they had virtually 
achieved their independence, were still at war with the mother- 
country. Mr. Polk, and those who thought with him, contended 
that such action on the part of this government would tend to 
involve us in a war with Spain, and establish an unfortunate 
precedent for the future. In December, 1827, he was placed 
on the committee on foreign affairs, and some time afterward 
was also appointed chairman of the select committee to which 
was referred that portion of the message of President Adams 
calling the attention of congress to the probable accumulation 
of a surplus in the treasury after the anticipated extinguish- 
ment of the national debt. At the head of the latter commit- 
tee, he made a report denymg the constitutional power of con- 
gress to collect from the people for distribution a surplus be- 
yond the wants of the government, and maintaining that the 
revenue should be reduced to the requirements of the public 
service. Early in 1833, as a member of the ways and means 
committee, he made a minority report unfavorable to the Bank 
of the United States, which aroused a storm of opposition, a 
meeting of the friends of the bank being held at Nashville. 
During the entire contest between the bank and President Jack- 
son, caused by the removal of the deposits in October, 1833, Mr. 
Polk, now chairman of the committee, supported the executive. 
His speech in opening the debate summarized the material facts 



JAMES K. POLK. 219 

and arguments on the Democratic side of the question. George 
McDuffie, leader of the opposition, bore testimony in his con- 
cluding remarks to the boldness and manliness with which Mr. 
Polk had assumed the only position that could be judiciously 
taken. Mr. Polk was elected speaker of the house of represent- 
atives in December, 1835, and held that office till 1839. He 
gave to the administration of Martin Van Buren the same un- 
hesitating support he had accorded to that of President Jack- 
son, and, though taking no part in the discussions, he approved 
of the leading measures recommended by the former, including 
the cession of the public lands to the states, the pre-emption 
law, and the proposal to establish an independent treasury, and 
exerted his influence to secure their adoption. He was the 
speaker during five sessions, and it was his fortune to preside 
over the house at a period when party feelings were excited to 
an unusual degree. Notwithstanding the fact that during the 
first session more appeals were taken from his decisions than 
were ever known before, he was uniformly sustained by the 
house, and frequently by leading members of the Whig party. 
Although he was opposed to the doctrines of the anti-slavery 
reformers, we have the testimony of their leader in the house, 
John Quincy Adams, to the effect that Speaker Polk unifoimly 
extended to him " every kindness and courtesy imaginable." 
On leaving congress, Mr. Polk became the candidate of the 
Democrats of Tennessee for governor. They had become dis- 
heartened by a series of disasters and defeats caused primarily 
by the defection of John Bell and Judge Hugh L. White. 
Under these circumstances it was evident that no one but the 
strongest man in the party could enter the canvass with the 
slightest prospect of success, and it was doubtful whether even 
he could carry off the prize. On being asked, Mr. Polk at 
once cheerfully consented to allow his name to be used. He 
was nominated in the autumn of 1838, but, owing to his congres- 
sional duties, was unable fairly to enter upon the canvass until 
the spring of 1839. His opponent was Newton Cannon, also a 
Democrat, who then held the office. The contest was spirited, 
and Mr. Polk was elected by over 2,500 majority. On 14 Oct. 
he took the oath of office. In his inaugural address he touched 
upon the relations of the state and Federal governments, de- 
clared that the latter had no constitutional power to incorporate 
a national bank, took strong ground against the creation of a 



220 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

surplus Federal revenue by taxation, asserted that " the agita- 
tion of the Abolitionists can by no possibility produce good to 
any portion of the Union, but must, if persisted in, lead to 
incalculable mischief," and discussed at length other topics, 
especially bearing upon the internal policy of Tennessee. In 
1841 Mr. Polk was again a candidate for the governorship, al- 
though his defeat was a foregone conclusion in view of the 
political whirlwind that had swept over the country in 1840 and 
resulted in the election of William Henry Harrison to the 
presidency. In Tennessee the Harrison electoral ticket had re- 
ceived more than 12,000 majority. Although to overcome this 
was impossible, Mr. Polk entered upon the canvass with his 
usual energy and earnestness. He could not secure the defeat 
of James C. Jones, the opposing Whig candidate, one of the 
most popular members of his party in the state, but he did 
succeed in cutting down the opposition majority to about 3,000. 
In 1843 Mr. Polk was once more a candidate; but this time 
Gov. Jones's majority was nearly 4,000. 

In 1839 Mr. Polk had been nominated by the legislature of 
Tennessee as its candidate for vice-president on the ticket with 
Martin Van Buren, and other states had followed the example; 
but Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, seemed to be the choice 
of the great body of the Democratic party, and he was accord- 
ingly nominated. From the date of Van Buren's defeat in 1840 
until within a few weeks of the meeting of the National Demo- 
cratic convention at Baltimore in 1844, public opinion in the 
party undoubtedly pointed to his renomination, but when in 
April of the latter year President Tyler concluded a treaty be- 
tween the government of the United States and the republic of 
Texas, providing for the annexation of the latter to the Union, 
a new issue was introduced into American politics that was 
destined to change not only the platforms of parties, but the 
future history and topography of the country itself. On the 
question whether Texas should be admitted, the greatest diver- 
gence of opinion among public men prevailed. The Whig party 
at the north opposed annexation, on the grounds that it would 
be an act of bad faith to Mexico, that it would involve the 
necessity of assuming the debt of the young republic, amount- 
ing to ten or twelve millions of dollars, and that it would 
further increase the area of slave territory. At the south the 
Whigs were divided, one section advocating the new policy, 



JAMES K. POLK. 221 

while the other concurred with their party friends at the north 
on the first two grounds of objection. The Democrats gen- 
erally favored annexation, but a portion of the party at the 
north, and a few of its members residing in the slave-states, 
opposed it. Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Clay agreed very nearly 
in their opinions, being in favor of annexation if the American 
people desired it, provided that the consent of Mexico could 
be obtained, or at least that efforts should be made to obtain 
it. In this crisis Mr. Polk declared his views in no uncertain 
tones. It being understood that he would be a candidate for 
vice-president, a letter was addressed to him by a committee of 
the citizens of Cincinnati, asking for an expression of his 
sentiments on the subject. In his reply, dated 22 April, 1844, 
he said : " I have no hesitation in declaring that I am in favor 
of the immediate reannexation of Texas to the government and 
territory of the United States. The proof is fair and satis- 
factory to my own mind that Texas once constituted a part of 
the territory of the United States, the title to which I regard 
to have been as indisputable as that to any portion of our 
territory." He also added that "the country west of the 
Sabine, and now called Texas, was [in 1819] most unwisely 
ceded away " ; that the people and government of the republic 
were most anxious for annexation, and that, if their prayer was 
rejected, there was danger that she might become "a depend- 
ency if not a colony of Great Britain." This letter, strongly 
in contrast with the hesitating phrases contained in that of ex- 
President Van Buren of 20 April on the same subject, elevated 
its author to the presidency. When the Baltimore convention 
met on 27 May, it was found that, while Mr. Van Buren could 
not secure the necessary two-third vote, his friends numbered 
more than one third of the delegates present, and were thus in 
a position to dictate the name of the successful candidate. As 
it was also found that they were inflexibly opposed to Messrs. 
Cass, Johnson, Buchanan, and the others whose names had been 
presented, Mr. Polk was introduced as the candidate of con- 
ciliation, and nommated with alacrity and unanimity. George 
M. Dallas was nominated for vice-president. In his letter of 
acceptance, Mr. Polk declared that, if elected, he should enter 
upon " the discharge of the high and solemn duties of the office 
with the settled purpose of not being a candidate for re-elec- 
tion." After an exciting canvass, Mr. Polk was elected over 



222 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

his distinguished opponent, Henry Clay, by about 40,000 ma- 
jority, on the popular vote, exclusive of that of South Carolina, 
whose electors were chosen by the legislature of the state; 
while in the electoral college he received 175 votes to 105 that 
were cast for Mr. Clay. 

On 4 March, 1845, Mr. Polk was inaugurated. In his inau- 
gural address, after recounting the blessings conferred upon 
the nation by the Federal Union, he said : " To perpetuate them, 
it is our sacred duty to preserve it. Who shall assign limits to 
the achievements of free minds and free hands under the pro- 
tection of this glorious Union ? No treason to mankind, since 
the organization of society, would be equal in atrocity to that 
of him who would lift his hand to destroy it. He would over- 
throw the noblest structure of human wisdom which protects 
himself and his fellow-man. He would stop the progress of 
free government and involve his country either in anarchy or 
in despotism." In selecting his cabinet, the new president was 
singularly fortunate. It comprised several of the most distin- 
guished members of the Democratic party, and all sections of 
the Union were represented. James Buchanan, fresh from his 
long experience in the senate, was named secretary of state ; 
Robert J. Walker, also an ex-senator and one of the best 
authorities on the national finances, was secretary of the treas- 
ury ; to William L. Marcy, ex-governor of New York, was con- 
fided the war portfolio ; literature was honored in the ap- 
pointment of George Bancroft as secretary of the navy ; Cave 
Johnson, a prominent son of Tennessee, was made postmaster- 
general ; and John Y. Mason, who had been a member of Presi- 
dent Tyler's cabinet, was first attorney-general and afterward 
secretary of the navy. When congress met in the following De- 
cember there was a Democratic majority in both branches. In 
his message the president condemned all anti-slavery agitation, 
recommended a sub-treasury and a tariff for revenue, and de- 
clared that the annexation of Texas was a matter that con- 
cerned only the latter and the United States, no foreign coun- 
try having any right to interfere. Congress was also informed 
that the American army under Gen. Zachary Taylor had been 
ordered to occupy, and had occupied, the western bank of 
Nueces river, beyond which Texas had never hitherto exercised 
jurisdiction. On 29 Dec, Texas was admitted into the Union, 
and two days later an act was passed extending the United 



JAMES K. POLK. 223 

States revenue system over the doubtful territory beyond the 
Nueces. Even these measures did not elicit a declaration of 
war from the Mexican authorities, who still declared their will- 
ingness to negotiate concerning the disputed territory between 
the Nueces and the Rio Grande. These negotiations, however, 
came to nothing, and the president, in accordance with Gen. 
Taylor's suggestion, ordered a forward movement, in obedience 
to which that officer advanced from his camp at Corpus Christi 
toward the Rio Grande, and occupied the district in debate. 
Thus brought face to face with Mexican troops, he was at- 
tacked early in May with 6,000 men by Gen. Arista, who was 
badly beaten at Palo Alto with less than half that number. 
The next day Taylor attacked Arista at Resaca de la Palma, 
and drove him across the Rio Grande. 

On receipt of the news of these events in Washington, Presi- 
dent Polk sent a message to congress, in which he declared that 
Mexican troops had at last shed the blood of American citizens 
on American soil, and asked for a formal declaration of war. 
A bill was accordingly introduced and passed by both houses, 
recognizing the fact that hostilities had been begun, and ap- 
propriating $10,000,000 for its prosecution. Its preamble read 
as follows : " Whereas, by the act of the republic of Mexico, a 
state of war exists between that government and the United 
States." The Whigs protested agamst this statement as un- 
true, alleging that the president had provoked retaliatory action 
by ordering the army into Mexican territory, and Abraham 
Lincoln introduced in the house of representatives what be- 
came known as the " spot resolutions," calling upon the presi- 
dent to designate the spot of American territory whereon the 
outrage had been committed. Nevertheless, the Whigs voted 
for the bill and generally supported the war until its conclu- 
sion. On 8 Aug. a second message was received from the presi- 
dent, asking for money with which to purchase territory from 
Mexico, that the dispute might be settled by negotiation. A 
bill appropriating $2,000,000 for this purpose at once brought 
up the question of slavery extension into new territory, and 
David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, in behalf of many northern 
Democrats, offered an amendment applying to any newly ac- 
quired territory the provision of the ordinance of 1781, to the 
effect that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall 
ever exist in any part of said territory except for crime, where- 



224 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



of the party shall first be duly convicted." The Whigs and 
northern Democrats united secured its passage, but it was sent 
to the senate too late to be acted upon. 

During the same session war with England regarding the 
Oregon question seemed imminent. By the treaties of 1803 
with France, and of 1819 with Spain, the United States had ac- 
quired the rights of those powers on the Pacific coast north of 
California. The northern boundary of the ceded territory was 
unsettled. The United States claimed that the line of 54° 40' 
north latitude was such boundary, while Great Britain main- 
tained that it followed the Columbia river. By the convention 
of 1827 the disputed territory had been held jointly by both 
countries, the arrangement being terminable by either country 
on twelve months' notice. The Democratic convention of 1844 
had demanded the reoccupation of the whole of Oregon up to 
54° 40', " with or without war with England," a demand popu- 
larly summarized in the campaign rallying-cry of " Fifty-four- 
forty or fight ! " The annexation of Texas having been accom- 
plished, the Whigs now began to urge the Democrats to carry 
out their promise regarding Oregon, and, against the votes of 
the extreme southern Democrats, the president was directed to 
give the requisite twelve months' notice. Further negotiations 
ensued, which resulted in the offer by Great Britain to yield her 
claim to the unoccupied territory between the 49th parallel and 
Columbia river, and acknowledged that parallel as the north- 
ern boundary. As the president had subscribed to the plat- 
form of the Baltimore convention, he threw upon the senate 
the responsibility of deciding whether the claim of the United 
States to the whole of Oregon should be insisted upon, or the 
compromise proposed by her majesty's government accepted. 
The senate, by a vote of 41 to 14, decided in favor of the latter 
alternative, and on 15 June, 1846, the treaty was signed. 

Two other important questions were acted upon at the first 
session of the 39th congress, the tariff and internal improve- 
ments. The former had been a leading issue in the presiden- 
tial contest of 1844. The act of 1842 had violated the princi- 
ples of the compromise bill of 1833, and the opinions of the 
two candidates for the presidency, on this issue, were supposed 
to be well defined previous to the termination of their con- 
gressional career. Mr. Polk was committed to the policy of a 
tariff for revenue, and Mr. Clay, when the compromise act was 



JAMES K. POLK. 



225 




under discussion, had pledged the party favorable to protection 
to a reduction of the imports to a revenue standard. Previous 
to his nomination, Mr. Clay made a speech at Raleigh, N. C, 
in which he advocated discriminatmg duties for the protection 
of domestic industry. This was followed by his letter in Sep- 
tember, 1844, in which he gave in his adhesion to the tariff 
of 1842. Probably 
alarmed at the pros- 
pect of losing votes at 
the south through his 
opposition to the an- 
nexation of Texas, and 
seeing defeat certain 
unless he could rally 
to his support the peo- 
ple of the north, Mr. 
Clay made one conces- 
sion after another, until he had virtually abandoned the ground 
he occupied in 1833, and made himself amenable to his own re- 
buke uttered at that time : " What man," he had then asked, " who 
is entitled to deserve the character of an American statesman, 
would stand up in his place in either house of congress and dis- 
turb the treaty of peace and amity ?" Mr. Polk, on the other 
hand, had courted criticism by his Kane letter, dated 19 June, 
1844, which was so ambiguously worded as to give ground for 
the charge that his position was identical with that held by Henry 
Clay. In his first annual message, however, he explained his 
views with precision and ability. The principles that would gov- 
ern his administration were proclaimed with great boldness, and 
the objectionable features of the tariff of 1842 were investigated 
and exposed, while congress was urged to substitute ad valorem 
for specific and minimum duties. " The terms ' protection to 
American industry,' " he went on to say, " are of popular import, 
but they should apply under a just system to all the various 
branches of industry in our country. The farmer, or planter, 
who toils yearly in his fields, is engaged in ' domestic indus- 
try,' and is as much entitled to have his labor ' protected ' as 
the manufacturer, the man of commerce, the navigator, or the 
mechanic, who are engaged also in 'domestic industry ' in their 
different pursuits. The joint labors of all these classes consti- 
tute the aggregate of the ' domestic industry ' of the nation, 



226 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

and they are equally entitled to the nation's ' protection.' No 
one of them can justly claim to be the exclusive recipients of 
' protection,' which can only be afforded by increasing burdens 
on the 'domestic industry ' of others." In accordance with 
the president's views, a bill providing for a purely revenue 
tariff, and based on a plan prepared by Sec. Walker, was intro- 
duced in the house of representatives on 15 June. After an 
unusually able discussion, a vote was reached on 3 July, when 
the measure was adopted by 114 ayes to 95 nays. But it was 
nearly defeated in the senate, where the vote was tied, and 
only the decision of Vice-President Dallas in its favor saved 
the bill. The occasion was memorable, party spirit ran high, 
and a crowded senate-chamber hung on the lips of that ofificial 
as he announced the reasons for his course. In conclusion he 
said : " If by thus acting it be my misfortune to offend any 
portion of those who honored me with their suffrages, I have 
only to say to them, and to my whole country, that I prefer the 
deepest obscurity of private life, with an unwounded conscience, 
to the glare of official eminence spotted by a sense of moral 
delinquency ! " 

Regarding the question of internal improvements, Mr. 
Polk's administration was signalized by the struggle between 
the advocates of that policy and the executive. A large ma- 
jority in both houses of congress, including members of both 
parties, were in favor of a lavish expenditure of the public 
money. On 24 July, 1846, the senate passed the bill known as 
the river-and-harbor improvement bill precisely as it had passed 
the house the previous March, but it was vetoed by the 
president in a message of unusual power. The authority of 
the general government to make internal improvements within 
the states was thoroughly examined, and reference was made 
to the corruptions of the system that expended money in par- 
ticular sections, leaving other parts of the country without gov- 
ernment assistance. Undaunted by the opposition of the ex- 
ecutive, the house of representatives, on 20 Feb., 1847, passed, 
by a vote of 89 to 72, a second bill making appropriations 
amounting to $600,000 for the same purpose. It was carried 
through the senate on the last day of the second session. Al- 
though the president could have defeated the objectionable 
measure by a *' pocket veto," in spite of the denunciations with 
which he was assailed by the politicians and the press, he again 



JAMES K. POLK. 22/ 

boldly met the question, and sent in a message that, for thor- 
oughness of investigation, breadth of thought, clearness and 
cogency of argument, far excels any of the state papers to 
which he has put his name. 

The conflict between the friends and opponents of slavery 
was also a prominent feature of President Polk's administration, 
and was being constantly waged on the floor of congress. 
During the second session of the 39th congress the house at- 
tached the Wilmot proviso to a bill appropriating $3,000,000 
for the purchase of territory from Mexico, as it had been ap- 
pended to one appropriating $2,000,000 for the same purpose 
at the previous session. The senate passed the bill without 
the amendment, and the house was compelled to concur. A 
bill to organize the territory of Oregon, with the proviso at- 
tached, passed by the latter body, was not acted upon by the 
senate. A motion made in the house of representatives by a 
southern member to extend the Missouri compromise-line of 
36° 30' to the Pacific was lost by a sectional vote, north against 
south, 81 to 104. A treaty of peace having been signed with 
Mexico, 2 Feb., 1848, after a series of victories, a bill was 
passed by the senate during the first session of the 30th con- 
gress, establishing territorial governments in Oregon, New 
Mexico, and California, with a provision that all questions 
concerning slavery in those territories should be referred to the 
U. S. supreme court for decision. It received the votes of the 
members from the slave-states, but was lost in the house. A 
bill was finally passed organizing the territory of Oregon with- 
out slavery. During the second session a bill to organize 
the territories of New Mexico and California with the Wilmot 
proviso was passed by the house, but the senate refused to 
consider it. Late in the session the latter body attached a bill 
permitting such organization with slavery to the general ap- 
propriation bill as a "rider," but, as the house objected, was 
compelled to strike it off. In his message to congress approv- 
ing the Oregon territorial bill Mr. Polk said : " I have an abid- 
ing confidence that the sober reflection and sound patriotism 
of all the states will bring them to the conclusion that the 
dictate of wisdom is to follow the example of those who have 
gone before us, and settle this dangerous question on the 
Missouri compromise or some other equitable compromise 
which would respect the rights of all, and prove satisfactory to 
16 



228 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

the different portions of the Union." President Polk was not 
a slavery propagandist, and consequently had no pro-slavery 
policy. On the contrary, in the settlement of the Oregon ques- 
tion, he did all in his power to secure the exclusion of slavery 
from that territory, and, although the final vote was not taken 
until within a few days after his retirement, the battle was 
fought and the decision virtually reached during his able ad- 
ministration. 

Mr. Polk, in a letter dated 19 May, 1848, reiterated his de- 
cision not to become a candidate again for the presidency, and 
retired at the close of his term of office to his home in Nash- 
ville with the intention not to re-enter public life. His health, 
never robust, had been seriously impaired by the unavoidable 
cares of office and his habit of devoting too much time and 
strength to the execution of details. Within a few weeks after 
his permanent return to Tennessee he fell a prey to a disease 
that would probably have only slightly affected a man in ordi- 
nary health, and a few hours sufficed to bring the attack to a 
fatal termination. Thus ended the life of one of whose public 
career it may still be too soon to judge with entire impartiality. 
Some of the questions on which he was called upon to act are 
still, nearly forty-five years after his death, party issues. Polk 
evidently believed with Mr. Clay that a Union all slave or all 
free was an impossible Utopia, and that there was no good 
reason why the north and the south should not continue to live 
for many years to come as they had lived since the adoption of 
the constitution. He deprecated agitation of the slavery ques- 
tion by the Abolitionists, and believed that the safety of the 
commonwealth lay in respecting the compromises that had 
hitherto furnished a modus vivendi between the slave and the 
free states. As to the annexation of Texas and the war with 
Mexico, his policy was undoubtedly the result of conviction, 
sincerity, and good faith. He believed, with John Quincy 
Adams and Andrew Jackson, that Texas had been unwisely 
ceded to Spain in 1819, and that it was desirable, from a geo- 
graphical point of view, that it should be re-annexed, seeing 
that it formed a most valuable part of the valley of the Missis- 
sippi. He was also of opinion that in a military point of view 
its acquisition was desirable for the protection of New Orleans, 
the great commercial mart of the southwestern section of the 
Union, which in time of war would be endangered by the close 



JAMES K. POLK. 220 

proximity of a hostile power having control of the upper waters 
of Red river. Holding these views and having been elevated 
to the presidency on a platform that expressly demanded that 
they should be embodied in action, and Texas again made a 
part of the national domain, he would have indeed been recre- 
ant to his trust had he attempted to carry out as president any 
policy antagonistic to that he had advocated when a candidate 
for that office. The war in which he became involved in carry- 
ing out these views was a detail that the nation was compelled 
to leave largely to his judgment. The president believed that 
the representations and promises of the Mexican authorities 
could not be trusted, and that the only argument to which they 
would pay attention was that of force. Regarding his famous 
order to Gen. Taylor to march toward the Rio Grande, it was 
suggested by that officer himself, and for his gallant action in 
the war the latter was elected the successor of President Polk. 
The settlement of the Oregon boundary-line was made equally 
obligatory upon the new president on taking office. He offered 
Great Britain the line that was finally accepted ; but when the 
British minister hastily rejected the offer, the entire country 
applauded his suggestion to that power of what the boundary 
might possibly be in case of war. 

But whatever the motives of the executive as to Texas and 
Oregon, the results of the administration of James K. Polk 
were brilliant in the extreme. He was loyally upheld by the 
votes of all parties in congress, abundantly supplied with the 
sinews of war, and seconded by gallant and competent officers 
in the field. For $15,000,000, in addition to the direct war ex- 
penses, the southwestern boundary of the country was carried 
to the Rio Grande, while the provinces of New Mexico and 
Upper California were added to the national domain. What 
that cession meant in increased wealth it is perhaps even yet 
too soon to compute. Among the less dazzling but still solid 
advantages conferred upon the nation during Mr. Polk's term 
of office was the adoption by congress, on his recommendation, 
of the public warehousing system that has since proved so valu- 
able an aid to the commerce of the country ; the negotiation 
of the 35th article of the treaty with Grenada, ratified 10 June, 
1848, which secured for our citizens the right of way across the 
Isthmus of Panama; the postal treaty of 15 Dec, 1848, with 
Great Britain, and the negotiation of commercial treaties with 



230 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

the secondary states of the Germanic confederation by which 
reciprocal relations were established and growing markets 
reached upon favorable terms. 

Mr. George Bancroft, the last surviving member of Polk's 
cabinet, who carefully revised and enlarged this article, in a 
communication to the editor, dated Washington, 8 March, 1888, 
says: "One of the special qualities of Mr. Polk's mind was his 
clear perception of the character and doctrines of the two great 
parties that then divided the country. Of all our public men — 
I say, distinctly, of all — Polk was the most thoroughly consist- 
ent representative of his party. He had no equal. Time and 
again his enemies sought for grounds on which to convict him 
of inconsistency, but so consistent had been his public career 
that the charge was never even made. Never fanciful or ex- 
treme, he was ever solid, firm, and consistent. His administra- 
tion, viewed from the standpoint of results, was perhaps the 
greatest in our national history, certainly one of the greatest. 
He succeeded because he insisted on being its centre, and in 
overruling and guiding all his secretaries to act so as to pro- 
duce unity and harmony. Those who study his administration 
will acknowledge how sincere and successful were his efforts, 
as did those who were contemporary with him." 

Mr. Polk, who was a patient student and a clear thinker, 
steadfast to opinions once formed, and not easily moved by 
popular opinion, labored faithfully, from his entrance into pub- 
lic life until the day when he left the White House, to dissemi- 
nate the political opinions in which he had been educated, and 
which commended themselves to his judgment. His private 
life was upright and blameless. Simple in his habits to ab- 
stemiousness, he found his greatest happiness in the pleasures 
of the home circle rather than in the gay round of public 
amusements. A frank and sincere friend, courteous and affable 
in his demeanor with strangers, generous and benevolent, the 
esteem in which he was held as a man and a citizen was quite 
as high as his official reputation. In the words of his friend 
and associate in office, Vice-President Dallas, he was "tem- 
perate but not unsocial, industrious but accessible, punctual but 
patient, moral without austerity, and devotional though not 
bigoted." See " Eulogy on the Life and Character of the Late 
James K. Polk," by George M. Dallas (Philadelphia, 1849); 
" Eulogy on the Life and Character of James Knox Polk," by 



JAMES K. POLK. 23 1 

A. O. P. Nicholson (Nashville, 1849); "James K. Polk," by 
John S. Jenkins (Buffalo, 1850); "History of the Adminis- 
tration of James K. Polk," by Lucien B. Chase (New York, 
1850) ; and Bancroft's large MSS. collection of Polk's letters 
and extracts from his diary, extending to twenty-two quarto 
volumes, now in the possession of the Lenox Library, New 
York. Referring to these type-written copies, made for him in 
1887 with a view to the preparation of the president's life, Mr. 
Bancroft wrote to a friend : " His character shines out in them 
just exactly as the man was, prudent, farsighted, bold, exceed- 
ing any Democrat of his day in his undeviatingly correct expo- 
sition of democratic principles ; and, in short, as I think, judging 
of him as I knew him, and judging of him by the results of his 
administration, one of the very foremost of our public men, 
and one of the very best, most honest, and most successful 
presidents the country ever had." 

His wife, Sarah Childress, born near Murfreesboro, Ruth- 
erford CO., Tenn., 4 Sept., 1803; died in Nashville, Tenn., 14 
Aug., 1891, was th^ daughter of Joel and Elizabeth Childress. 
Her father, a farmer in easy circum- 
stances, sent her to the Moravian in- 
stitute at Salem, N. C, where she was 
educated. On returning home, she 
married Mr. Polk, who was then a 
member of the legislature of Ten- 
nessee. The following year he was 
elected to congress, and during his 
fourteen sessions in Washington Mrs. 
Polk's courteous manners, sound judg- 
ment, and many attainments gave her 
a high place in society. On her re- ^ - 

turn as the wife of the president, hav- ^aa>cl^ ^. 
ing no children, Mrs. Polk devoted 

herself entirely to her duties as mistress of the White House. 
She held weekly receptions, and alDolished the custom of giving 
refreshments to the guests. She also forbade dancing, as out 
of keeping with the character of these entertainments. In spite 
of her reforms, Mrs. Polk was extremely popular. " Madam," 
said a prominent South Carolinian, at one of her receptions, 
" there is a woe pronounced against you in the Bible." On 




232 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



her inquiring his meaning, he added: "The Bible says, 'Woe 
unto you when all men shall speak well of you.' " An English 
lady visiting Washington thus described the president's wife : 
"Mrs. Polk is a very handsome woman. Her hair is very black, 
and her dark eyes and complexion remind one of the Spanish 
donnas. She is well read, has much talent for conversation, 
and is highly popular. Her excellent taste in dress preserves 
the subdued though elegant costume that characterizes the 
lady." Mrs. Polk became a communicant of the Presbyterian 
church in 1834, and maintained her connection with that de- 
nomination until the close of her long life. After the death 
of her husband she continued to reside at Nashville, in the 
house seen in the illustration on another page and known as 
" Polk Place." In the foreground is the tomb of her hus- 
band, by whose side she was buried. The courts, in 1891, 
having decided that Mr. Polk's will, leaving his estate "to the 
worthiest of the name forever," was void, as constituting a per- 
petuity, the tomb, with the remains of President and Mrs. 
Polk, were removed by the State and reinterred with appro- 
priate public ceremonies on Capitol Hill, Nashville, 19 Sept., 
1893, with a view to the division of the land among the heirs. 





OUy^c 



D A??I£TON & C? 



ZACHARY TAYLOR. 

Zachary Taylor, twelfth president of the United States, 
born in Orange county, Va., 24 Sept., 1784; died in the ex- 
ecutive mansion, Washington, D. C, 9 July, 1850. He was 
fifth in descent from James Taylor, who came to this country 
from Carlisle, on the English border, in 1658. His father. 
Col. Richard Taylor, an officer in the war of the Revolution, 
was conspicuous for zeal and daring among men in whom 
personal gallantry was the rule. After the war he retired to 
private life, and in 1785 removed to Kentucky, then a sparsely 
occupied county of Virginia, and made his home near the 
present city of Louisville, where he died. Zachary was the 
third son. Brought up on a farm in a new settlement, he had 
few scholastic opportunities; but in the thrift, industry, self- 
denial, and forethought required by the circumstances, he 
learned such lessons as were well adapted to form the character 
illustrated by his eventful career. Yet he had also another 
form of education. The liberal grants of land that Virginia 
made to her soldiers caused many of them, after the peace of 
1783, to remove to the west; thus Col. Taylor's neighbors in- 
cluded many who had been his fellow-soldiers, and these often 
met around his wide hearth. Their conversation would natu- 
rally be reminiscences of their military life, and all the sons of 
Col. Taylor, save one, Hancock, entered the U. S. army. The 
rapid extension of settlements on the border was productive of 
frequent collision with the Indians, and almost constantly re- 
quired the protection of a military force. 

In 1808, on the recommendation of President Jefferson, 
congress authorized the raising of five regiments of infantry, 
one of riflemen, one of light artillery, and one of light dragoons. 
From the terms of the act it was understood that this was not 
to be a permanent increase of the U. S. army, and many of 



234 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



the officers of the " old army " declined to seek promotion in 
the new regiments. At this period questions had arisen be- 
tween the United States and Great Britain which caused serious 
anticipations of a war with that power, and led many to regard 
the additional force authorized as a preliminary step in prepa- 
ration for such a war. Zachary Taylor, then in his twenty- 
fourth year, applied for a commission, and was appointed a ist 
lieutenant in the yth infantry, one of the new regiments, and in 
1810 was promoted to the grade of captain in the same regi- 
ment, according to the regulations of the service. He was 
happily married in 1810 to Miss Margaret Smith, of Calvert 
county, Md., who shared with him the privations and dangers 
of his many years of frontier service, and survived him but 
a short time. The troubles on the frontier continued to 
increase until 181 1, when Gen. William H. Harrison, afterward 
president of the United States, marched against the stronghold 
of the Shawnees and fought the battle of Tippecanoe. 

In June, 181 2, war was declared against England, and this 
increased the widespread and not unfounded fears of Indian 
invasion in the valley of the Wabash. To protect Vincennes 
from sudden assault, Capt. Taylor was ordered to Fort Harrison, 
a stockade on the river above Vincennes, and with his company 
ofinfantry, about fifty strong, made, preparations to defend the 
place. He had not long to wait. A large body of Indians, 
knowing the smallness of the garrison, came, confidently count- 
ing on its capture; but as it is a rule in their warfare to seek 
by stratagem to avoid equal risk and probable loss, they tried 
various expedients, which were foiled by the judgment, vigi- 
lance, and courage of the commander, and when the final attack 
was made, the brave little garrison repelled it with such loss to 
the assailants that when, in the following October, Gen. Hop- 
kins came to support Fort Harrison, no Indians were to be 
found thereabout. For the defence of Fort Harrison, Capt. 
Taylor received the brevet of major, an honor that had seldom, 
if ever before, been conferred for service in Indian war. In the 
following November, Maj. Taylor, with a battalion of regulars, 
formed a part of the command of Gen. Hopkins in the expe- 
dition against the hostile Indians at the head-waters of the 
Wabash. In 1814, with his separate command, he being then a 
major by commission, he made a campaign against the hostile 
Indians and their British allies on Rock river, which was so 



ZA CHAR V TA YLOR. 



235 



successful as to give subsequent security to that immediate 
frontier. In such service, not the less hazardous or indicative 
of merit because on a small scale, he passed the period of his 
employment on that frontier until the treaty of peace with 
Great Britain disposed the Indians to be quiet. 

After the war, 3 March, 1815, a law was enacted to fix the 
military peace establishment of the United States. By this act 
the whole force was to be reduced to 10,000 men, with such 
proportions of artillery, infantry, and riflemen as the president 
should judge proper. The president was to cause the officers 
and men of the existing army to be arranged, by unrestricted 
transfers, so as to form the corps authorized by the recent act, 
and the supernumeraries were to be discharged. Maj. Taylor 
had borne the responsibilities and performed the duties of a 
battalion commander so long and successfully that when the 
arranging board reduced him to the rank of captain in the new 
organization he felt the injustice, but resigned from the army 
without complaint, returned home, and proceeded, as he said 
in after-years, "to make a crop of corn." Influences that were 
certainly not employed by him, and are unknown to the writer 
of this sketch, caused his restoration to the grade of major, 
and he resumed his place in the army, there to continue until 
the voice of the people called him to the highest office within 
their gift. Under the rules that governed promotion in the 
army, Maj. Taylor became lieutenant-colonel of the ist infantry, 
and for a period commanded at Fort Snelling, then the ad- 
vanced post in the northwest. 

In 1832 he became colonel of the ist infantry, with head- 
quarters at Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien. The barracks 
were unfinished, and his practical mind and conscientious at- 
tention to every duty were manifest in the progress and com- 
pletion of the work. The second Black Hawk campaign 
occurred this year, and Col. Taylor, with the greater part of 
his regiment, joined the army commanded by Gen. Henry At- 
kinson, and with it moved from Rock Island up the valley of 
Rock river, following Black Hawk, who had gone to make a 
junction with the Pottawattamie band of the Prophet, a nephew 
of Black Hawk. This was in violation of the treaty he had 
made with Gen. Edmund P. Gaines in 1831, by which he was 
required to remove to the west of the Mississippi, relinquishing 
all claim to the Rock river villages. It was assumed that his 



236 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

purpose in returning to the east side of tiie river was hostile, 
and, from the defenceless condition of the settlers and the 
horror of savage atrocity, great excitement was created, due 
rather to his fame as a warrior than to the number of his fol- 
lowers. If, as he subsequently declared, his design was to go 
and live peaceably with his nephew, the Prophet, rather than 
with the Foxes, of whom Keokuk was the chief, that design 
may have been frustrated by the lamentable mistake of some 
mounted volunteers in hastening forward in pursuit of Black 
Hawk, who with his band — men, women, and children — was 
going up on the south side of the Rock river. The pursuers 
fell mto an ambuscade, and were routed with some loss and 
in great confusion. The event will be remembered by the men 
of that day as " Stillman's run." 

The vanity of the young Indians was inflated by their 
success, as was shown by some exultant messages ; and the 
sagacious old chief, whatever he may have previously calculated 
upon, now saw that war was inevitable and immediate. With 
his band, recruited by warriors from the Prophet's band, he 
crossed to the north side of Rock river, and, passing through 
the swamp Koshkenong, fled over the prairies west of the Four 
Lakes, toward Wisconsin river. Gen. Henry Dodge, with a 
battalion of mounted miners, overtook the Indians while they 
were crossing the Wisconsin and attacked their rear-guard, 
which, when the main body had crossed, swam the river and 
joined the retreat over the Kickapoo hills toward the Missis- 
sippi. Gen. Atkinson, with his whole army, continued the pur- 
suit, and, after a toilsome march, overtook the Indians north 
of Prairie du Chien, on the bank of the Mississippi, to the west 
side of which they were preparing to cross in bark canoes made 
on the spot. That purpose was foiled by the accidental arrival 
of a steamboat with a small gun on board. The Indians took 
cover in a willow marsh, and there was fought the battle of the 
Bad Axe. The Indians were defeated and dispersed, and the 
campaign ended. In the mean time. Gen. Winfield Scott, with 
troops from the east, took chief command and established his 
headquarters at Rock Island, and thither Gen. Atkinson went 
with the regular troops, except that part of the ist infantry 
which constituted the garrison of Fort Crawford. With these 
Col. Taylor returned to Prairie du Chien. When it was re- 
ported that the Indians were on an island above the prairie, he 



ZA CHA RY TAYL OR. 



237 



sent a lieutenant with an appropriate command to explore the 
island, where unmistakable evidence was found of the recent 
presence of the Indians and of their departure. Immediately 
thereafter a group of Indians appeared on the east bank of the 
river under a white flag, who proved to be Black Hawk, with a 
remnant of his band and a few friendly Winnebagoes. The 
lieutenant went with them to the fort, where Col. Taylor 
received them, except the Winnebagoes, as prisoners. A lieu- 
tenant and a guard were sent with them, sixty in number — 
men, women, and children — by steamboat, to Rock Island, 
there to report to Gen. Scott for orders in regard to the 
prisoners. Col. Taylor actively participated in the campaign 
up to its close, and to him was surrendered the chief who had 
most illustrated the warlike instincts of the Indian race, to 
whom history must fairly accord the credit of having done 
much under the most disadvantageous circumstances. In 1836 
Col. Taylor was ordered to Florida for service in the Seminole 
war, and the next year he defeated the Indians in the decisive 
battle of Okechobee, for which he received the brevet of 
brigadier-general, and in 1838 was appointed to the chief com- 
mand in Florida. In 1840 he was assigned to command the 
southern division of the western department of the army. 
Though Gen. Taylor had for many years been a cotton-planter, 
his family had lived with him at his military station, but, when 
ordered for an indefinite time on field service, he made his 
family home at Baton Rouge, La. 

Texas having been annexed to the United States in 1845, 
Mexico threatened to invade Texas with the avowed purpose to 
recover the territory, and Gen. Taylor was ordered to defend 
it as a part of the United States. He proceeded with all his 
available force, about 1,500 men, to Corpus Christi, where he 
was joined by re-enforcements of regulars and volunteers. 
Discussion had arisen as to whether the Nueces or the Rio 
Grande was the proper boundary of Texas. His political 
opinions, whatever they might be, were subordinate to the 
duty of a soldier to execute the orders of his government, and, 
without uttering it, he acted on the apophthegm of Decatur : 
" My country, right or wrong, my country." Texas claimed pro- 
tection for her frontier, the president recognized the fact that 
Texas had been admitted to the Union with the Rio Grande 
as her boundary, and Gen. Taylor was instructed to advance to 



238 



LIVES OF THE PKESIDENTS. 



that river. His force had been increased to about 4,000, when, 
on 8 March, 1846, he marched from Corpus Christi. He was of 
course conscious of the inadequacy of his division to resist such 
an army as Mexico might send against it, but when ordered by 
superior authority it was not his to remonstrate. Gen. Gaines, 
commanding the western department, had made requisitions for 
a sufficient number of volunteers to join Taylor, but the secre- 
tary of war countermanded them, except as to such as had al- 
ready joined. Gen. Taylor, with a main depot at Point Isabel, 
advanced to the bank of the Rio Grande, opposite to Mata- 
moras, and there made provision for defence of the place called 
Fort Brown. Soon after his arrival, Ampudia, the Mexican 
general at Matamoras, made a threatening demand that Gen. 
Taylor should withdraw his troops beyond the Nueces, to 
which he replied that his position had been taken by order of 
his government, and would be maintained. Having completed 
the intrenchment, and being short of supplies, he left a garri- 
son to hold it, and marched with an aggregate force of 2,288 
men to obtain additional supplies from Point Isabel, about 
thirty miles distant. Gen. Arista, the new Mexican command- 
er, availing himself of the opportunity to interpose, crossed 
the river below Fort Brown with a force estimated at 6,000 
regular troops, 10 pieces of artillery, and a considerable amount 
of auxiliaries. In the afternoon of the second day's march 
from Point Isabel these were reported by Gen. Taylor's cavalry 
to be in his front, and he halted to allow the command to rest 
and for the needful dispositions for battle. In the evening a 
request was made that a council of war should be held, to which 
Gen. Taylor assented. The prevalent opinion was in favor of 
falling back to Point Isabel, there to intrench and wait for re- 
enforcements. After listening to a full expression of views, 
the general announced : " I shall go to Fort Brown or stay in 
my shoes," a western expression equivalent to " or die in the 
attempt." He then notified the officers to prepare to attack 
the enemy at dawn of day. In the morning of 8 May the ad- 
vance was made by columns until the enemy's batteries opened, 
when line of battle was formed and Taylor's artillery, inferior 
in number but otherwise superior, was brought fully into action 
and soon dispersed the mass of the enemy's cavalry. The 
chaparral, dense copses of thorn-bushes, served both to con- 
ceal the position of the enemy and to impede the movements 



*A» 




ZA CHARY TAYLOR. 239 

of the attacking force. The action closed at night, when the 
enemy retired, and Gen. Taylor bivouacked on the field. Early 
in the morning of 9 May he resumed his march, and in the 
afternoon encountered Gen. Arista in a strong position with 
artillery advantageously posted. Taylor's infantry pushed 
through the chaparral lining both sides of the road, and drove 
the enemy's infantry before them ; but the batteries held their 
position, and were so fatally used that it was an absolute neces- 
sity to capture them. For this purpose the general ordered a 
squadron of dragoons to charge them. The enemy's gunners 
were cut down at their pieces, the commandmg officer was 
captured, and the infantry soon made the victory complete. 
The Mexican loss in the two battles was estimated at a thou- 
sand; the American, killed, forty-nine. The enemy precipi- 
tately recrossed the Rio Grande, leaving the usual evidence of 
a routed army. Gen. Taylor then proceeded to Fort Brown. 
During his absence it had been heavily bombarded, and the 
commander, Maj. Brown, had been killed. The Mexicans evac- 
uated Matamoras, and Gen. Taylor took possession, 18 May. 

The Rio Grande, except at time of flood, offered little 
obstacle to predatory incursions, and it was obviously sound 
policy to press the enemy back from the border. Gen. Taylor, 
therefore, moved forward to Camargo, on the San Juan, a tribu- 
tary of the Rio Grande. This last-named river rose so as to 
enable steamboats to transport troops and supplies, and by 
September a sufificiently large force of volunteers had reported 
at Gen. Taylor's headquarters to justify a further march into 
the interior, but the move must be by land, and for that there 
was far from adequate transportation. Hiring Mexican pack- 
ers to supplement the little transportation on hand, he was able 
to add one division of volunteers to the regulars of his com- 
mand, and with a force of 6,625 "^^n of all arms he marched 
against Monterey, a fortified town of great natural strength, 
garrisoned by 10,000 men under Gen. Ampudia. On 19 Sept. he 
encamped before the town, and on the 21st began the attack. 
On the third day Gen. Ampudia proposed to surrender, com- 
missioners were appointed, and terms of capitulation agreed 
upon, by which the enemy were to retire beyond a specified 
line, and the United States forces were not to advance beyond 
that line during the next eight weeks or until the pleasure of 
the respective governments should be known. By some strange 



240 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



misconception, the U. S. government disapproved the arrange- 
ment, and ordered that the armistice should be terminated, by 
which we lost whatever had been gained in the interests of 
peace by the generous terms of the capitulation, and got noth- 
ing, for, during the short time that remained unexpired, no 
provision had been or could be made to enable Gen. Taylor to 
advance into the heart of Mexico. Presuming that such must 
be the purpose of the government, he assiduously strove to 
collect the means for that object. When his preparations 
were well-nigh perfected. Gen. Scott was sent to Mexico with 
orders that enabled him at discretion to strip Gen. Taylor of 
both troops and material of war, to be used on another line of 
operations. The projected campaign against the capital of 
Mexico was to be from Vera Cruz, up the steppes, and against 
the fortifications that had been built to resist any probable in- 
vasion, instead of from Saltillo, across the plains to the com- 
paratively undefended capital. The difficulty on this route was 
the waterless space to be crossed, and against that Gen. Taylor 
had ingeniously provided. According to instructions, he went 
to Victoria, Mexico, turned over his troops, except a proper 
escort to return through a country of hostiles to Monterey, 
and then went to Agua Nueva, beyond Saltillo, where he was 
joined by Gen. Wool with his command from Chihuahua. 

Gen. Santa-Anna saw the invitation offered by the with- 
drawal of Gen. Taylor's troops, and with a well-appointed army, 
20,000 strong, marched with the assurance of easily recovering 
their lost territory. Gen. Taylor fell back to the narrow pass 
in front of the hacienda of Buena Vista, and here stood on the 
defensive. His force was 5,400 of all arms; but of these only 
three batteries of artillery, one squadron of dragoons, one 
mounted company of Texans, and one regiment of Mississippi 
riflemen had ever been under fire. Some skirmishing occurred 
on 22 Feb., and a general assault along the whole line was 
made on the morning of the 23d. The battle, with varying 
fortune, continued throughout the day ; at evening the enemy 
retired, and during the night retreated by the route on which 
he had advanced, having suffered much by the casualties of 
battle, but still more by desertions. So Santa-Anna returned 
with but a remnant of the regular army of Mexico, on which 
reliance had been placed to repel invasion, and thenceforward 
peace was undisturbed in the valley of the Rio Grande. At 



ZA CHA R V TA YL OR. 



241 



that time Gen. Taylor's capacity was not justly estimated, his 
golden silence being often misunderstood. His reply to Sec. 
Marcy's strictures in regard to the capitulation of Monterey 
exhibited such vigor of thought and grace of expression that 
many attributed it to a member of his staff who had a literary 
reputation. It was written by Gen. Taylor's own hand, in the 
open air, by his camp-fire at Victoria, Mexico. 

Many years of military routine had not dulled his desire for 
knowledge; he had extensively studied both ancient and mod- 
ern history, especially the English. Unpretending, meditative, 
observant, and conclusive, he was best understood and most 
appreciated by those who had known him long and intimately. 
In a campaign he gathered information from all who approached 
him, however sinister their motive might be. By comparison 
and elimination he gained a knowledge that was often surpris- 
ing as to the position and designs of the enemy. In battle he 
was vigilantly active, though quiet in bearing ; calm and consid- 
erate, though stern and 
inflexible; butwhen the 
excitement of danger 
and strife had subsided, 
he had a father's ten- 
derness for the wound- 
ed, and none more 
sincerely mourned for 
those who had bravely 
fallen in the line of 
their duty. 

Before his nomina- 
tion for the presidency 

Gen. Taylor had no political aspirations and looked forward to 
the time when he should retire from the army as the beginning 
of a farmer's life. He had planned for his retreat a stock-farm 
in the hills of Jefferson county, behind his cotton-plantation 
on the Mississippi river. In his case, as in some other notable 
instances, the fact of not desiring office rather increased than 
diminished popular confidence, so that unseeking he was sought. 
From early manhood he had served continually in theU. S. army. 
His duties had led him to consider the welfare of the country 
as one and indivisible, and his opinions were free from party or 
sectional intensity. Conscious of his want of knowledge of 




242 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

the machinery of the civil service, he formed his cabinet to 
supplement his own information. They were men well known 
to the public by the eminent civil stations they had occupied, 
and were only thus known to Gen. Taylor, who as president 
had literally no friends to reward and no enemies to punish. 
The cabinet was constituted as follows : John M. Clayton, of 
Delaware, secretary of state; William M. Meredith, of Penn- 
sylvania, secretary of the treasury ; George W. Crawford, of 
Georgia, secretary of war ; W. Ballard Preston, of Virginia, 
secretary of the navy; Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, attor- 
ney-general; Alexander H. H. Stuart, of Virginia, secretary 
of the interior. All these had served in the U. S. senate or the 
house of representatives, and all were lawyers. Taylor was 
the popular hero of a foreign war which had been victoriously 
ended, bringing to the United States a large acquisition of ter- 
ritory with an alluring harvest of gold, but, all unheeded, 
bringing also a large addition to the elements of sectional con- 
tention. These were soon developed, and while the upper air 
was calm and the sun of prosperity shone brightly on the land, 
the attentive listener could hear the rumbling sound of ap- 
proaching convulsion. President Taylor, with the keen watch- 
fulness and intuitive perception that had characterized him as 
a commander in the field, easily saw and appreciated the dan- 
ger ; but before it had reached the stage for official action he 
died. His party and local relations, being a Whig and a south- 
ern planter, gave him the vantage-ground for the exercise of 
a restraining influence in the threatened contest. His views, 
matured under former responsibilities, were tersely given to 
confidential friends, but as none of his cabinet are living 
(Stuart was the last survivor), their consultations cannot be 
learned unless from preserved manuscript. During the brief 
period of his administration the rules that would govern it were 
made manifest, and no law for civil-service reform was need- 
ful for his guidance. With him the bestowal of office was a 
trust held for the people ; it was not to be gained by proof of 
party zeal and labor. The fact of holding Democratic opinions 
was not a disqualification for the office. Nepotism had with 
him no quarter. Gen. Winfield Scott related to the writer an 
anecdote that may appropriately close this sketch. He said he 
had remarked to his wife that Gen. Taylor was an upright man, 
to which she replied: "He is not "; that he insisted his long 



ZA CHA RY TAYL OR. 



243 



acquaintance should enable him to judge better than she. But 
she persisted in her denial, and he asked : " Then what man- 
ner of man is he ? " when she said : " He 
is a downright man." 

As president he had purity, patriot- 
ism, and discretion to guide him in his 
new field of duty, and had he lived 
long enough to stamp his character on 
his administration', it would have been 
found that the great soldier was equally 
fitted to be the head of a government. 
He was buried in the family cemetery, 
five miles from Louisville. The accom- 
panying illustration is a representation 
of his monument. It is a granite shaft 
surmounted by a marble statue, in full 
uniform, and was erected by the State 
of Kentucky. The height, including 
the statue, is thirty-seven feet. The 
illustration on page 241 is a picture of 
Gen. Taylor's home, and the birthplace 
of several of his children. Gen. Taylor's life was written by 
Joseph R. Fry and Robert T. Conrad (Philadelphia, 1848), by 
John Frost (New York, 1848), and by Gen. O. O. Howard, in 
the "Great Commanders" series (1892). 




His wife, Margaret, born in Calvert county, Md., in 1790; 
died near Pascagoula, La., 18 Aug., 1852, was the daughter of 
Walter Smith, a Maryland planter. He was descended from 
Richard Smith, who was appointed Attorney-General of Mary- 
land by Oliver Cromwell. She received a home education, 
married early in life, and, until her husband's election to the 
presidency, resided with him chiefly in garrisons or on the 
frontier. During the Florida war she established herself at 
Tampa bay, and did good service among the sick and wounded 
in the hospitals there. Mrs. Taylor was without social ambi- 
tion, and when Gen. Taylor became president she reluctantly 
accepted her responsibilities, regarding the office as a "plot to 
deprive her of her husband's society and to shorten his life by 
unnecessary care." She surrendered to her youngest daughter 
the superintendence of the household, and took no part in 
17 



244 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

social duties. Her eldest daughter, Ann, married Dr. Rob- 
ert Wood, Assistant-Surge.on-General of the Army. Another 
daughter, Sarah Knox, became the wife of Jefferson Davis, 
the marriage taking place near Louisville, Ky., the bride's uncle, 
Hancock Taylor, acting for her father, who was then with his 
command on the frontier. 

Another daughter, Elizabeth, born in Jefferson county, 
Ky., in 1824, was educated in Philadelphia, married Maj. Wil- 
liam W. S. Bliss in her nineteenth year, and, on her father's 
inauguration, became mistress of the White House. Mrs. Bliss, 
or Miss Betty, as she was popularly called, was a graceful and 
accomplished hostess, and, it is said, " did the honors of the 
establishment with the artlessness of a rustic belle and the grace 
of a duchess." After the death of her distinguished father in 
1850, and her husband in 1853, she spent several years in re- 
tirement, subsequently marrying Philip Pendleton Dandridge, 
of Winchester, Va., whom she survives. 

His only son, Richard, soldier, born in Jefferson county, 
Ky., 27 Jan., 1826; died in New York city, 12 April, 1879, was 
sent to Edinburgh when thirteen years old, where he spent 
three years in studying the classics, and then a year in France. 
He entered the junior class at Yale in 1843, ^^id was graduated 
there in 1845. He was a wide and voracious though a desultory 
reader. From college he went to his father's camp on the Rio 
Grande, and he was present at Palo Alto and Resaca de la 
Palma. His health then became impaired, and he returned 
home. He resided on a cotton-plantation in Jefferson county, 
Miss., until 1849, when he removed to a sugar-estate in St. 
Charles parish, Louisiana, about twenty miles above New 
Orleans, where he was residing when the civil war began. He 
was in the state senate from 1856 to i860, was a delegate to 
the Charleston Democratic convention in i860, and afterward 
to that at Baltimore, and was a member of the Secession con- 
vention of Louisiana. As a member of the military committee, 
he aided the governor in organizing troops, and in June, 1861, 
went to Virginia as colonel of the 9th Louisiana volunteers. 
The day he reached Richmond he left for Manassas, arriving 
there at dusk on the day of the battle. In the autumn he was 
made a brigadier-general, and in the spring of 1862 he led his 



ZA CHAR V TA YLOR. 



245 



brigade in the valley campaign under " Stonewall " Jackson. 
He distinguished himself at Front Royal, Middletown, Win- 
chester, Strasburg, Cross Keys, and Port Republic, and Jackson 
recommended him for promotion. Taylor was also with Jack- 
son in the seven days' battles before Richmond. He was pro- 
moted to major-general, and assigned to the command of Lou- 
isiana. The fatigues and exposures of his campaigns there 
brought on a partial and temporary paralysis of the lower 
limbs; but in August he assumed command. The only com- 
munication across the Mississippi retained by the Confederates 
was between Vicksburg and Port Hudson; but Taylor showed 
great ability in raising, organizing, supplying, and handling an 
army, and he gradually won back the state west of the Missis- 
sippi from the National forces. He had reclaimed the whole 
of this when Vicksburg fell, 4 July, 1863, and was then com- 
pelled to fall back west of Berwick's bay. Gen. Taylor's prin- 
cipal achievement during the war was his defeat of Gen. Na- 
thaniel P. Banks at Sabine Cross-Roads, near Mansfield, De 
Soto parish. La., 8 April, 1864. With 8,000 men he attacked the 
advance of the northern army and routed it, capturing twenty- 
two guns and a large number of prisoners. He followed 
Banks, who fell back to Pleasant Hill, and on the next day 
again attacked him, when Taylor was defeated, losing the 
fruits of the first day's victory. These two days' fighting have 
been frequently compared to that of Shiloh — a surprise and 
defeat on the first day, followed by a substantial victory of 
the National forces on the second. In the summer of 1864 
Taylor was promoted to be a lieutenant-general, and ordered 
to the command of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, 
etc. Here he was able merely to protract the contest, while 
the great armies decided it. After Lee and Johnston capitu- 
lated there was nothing for him, and he surrendered to Gen. 
Edward R. S. Canby, at Citronelle, 8 May, 1865. The war left 
Taylor ruined in fortune, and he soon went abroad. Return- 
ing home, he took part in politics as an adviser, and his counsel 
was held in esteem by Samuel J. Tilden in his presidential can- 
vass. During this period he wrote his memoir of the war, 
entitled "Destruction and Reconstruction" (New York, 1879). 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 

Millard Fillmore, thirteenth president of the United 
States, born in the township of Locke (now Summerhill), Ca- 
yuga county, N. Y., 7 Jan., 1800; died in Buffalo, N. Y., 7 
March, 1874. The name of Fillmore is of English origin, and at 
different periods has been variously written. Including the son 
of the ex-president, the family can be traced through six gener- 
ations, and, as has been said of that of Washington, its history 
gives proof "of the lineal and enduring worth of race." The 
first of the family to appear in the New World was a certain 
John Fillmore, who, in a conveyance of two acres of land dated 
24 Nov., 1704, is described as a "mariner of Ipswich," Mass. 
His eldest son, of the same name, born two years before the 
purchase of the real estate in Beverly, also became a sea-faring 
man, and while on a voyage in the sloop " Dolphin," of Cape 
Ann, was captured with all on board by the pirate Capt. John 
Phillips. For nearly nine months Fillmore and his three com- 
panions in captivity were compelled to serve on the pirate ship 
and to submit, during that long period, to many hardships and 
much cruel treatment. After watching and waiting for an 
opportunity to obtain their freedom, their hour at length came. 
While Fillmore sent an axe crashing through the skull of Bur- 
rail, the boatswain, the captain and other officers were de- 
spatched by his companions, and the ship was won. They 
sailed her into Boston harbor, and the same court which con- 
demned the brigands of the sea presented John Fillmore with 
the captain's silver-hilted sword and other articles, which are 
preserved to this day by his descendants. The sword was in- 
herited by his son, .Nathaniel, and was made good use of in 
both the French and Revolutionary wars. Lieut. Fillmore's 
second son, who also bore the name Nathaniel, and who was 
the father of the president, went with his young wife, Phebe 




i"hyH3HanJr,WfwTjr 





^C 



D-Applefoi. * 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 



247 



Millard, to what at the close of the past century was the " far 
west," where he and a younger brother built a log cabin in the 
wilderness, and there his second son, Millard, was born. Na- 
thaniel Fillmore was one of '* God Almighty's gentlemen," 
whose creed was contained in two words, '* do right," and who 
lived to see his son elevated to the highest position in his 
native land. Of the president's mother, who died in the sum- 
mer of 1831, little is known beyond the fact that she was a sen- 
sible and, in her later years, a sickly woman ; with a sunny 
nature that enabled her to endure uncomplainingly the many 
hardships of a frontier life, and that her closing days were 
gladdened by the frequent visits of her son, who was then in 
public life, with every prospect of a successful professional 
and political career. 

From a brief manuscript autobiography prepared by " worthy 
Mr. Fillmore," as Washington Irving described him, we learn 
that, owing to a defective title, his father lost his property on 
what was called the "military tract," and removed to another 
part of the same county, now known as Niles, where he took a 
perpetual lease of 130 acres, wholly unimproved and covered 
with heavy timber. It was here that the future president first 
knew anything of life. Working for nine months on the farm, 
and attending such primitive schools as then existed in that 
neighborhood for the other three months of the year, he had 
an opportunity of forgetting during the summer what he ac- 
quired in the winter, for in those days there were no news- 
papers and magazines to be found in pioneers' cabins, and his 
father's library consisted of but two books — the Bible and a 
collection of hymns. He never saw a copy of " Shakespeare " 
or " Robinson Crusoe," a history of the United States, or even 
a map of his own country, till he was nineteen years of age I 
Nathaniel Fillmore's misfortunes in losing his land through a 
defective title, and again in taking another tract of exceedingly 
poor soil, gave him a distaste for farming, and made him de- 
sirous that his sons should follow other occupations. As his 
means did not justify him or them in aspiring to any profes- 
sion, he wished them to learn trades, and accordingly Millard, 
then a sturdy youth of fourteen, was apprenticed for a few 
months on trial to the business of carding wool and dressing 
cloth. During his apprenticeship he was, as the youngest, 
treated with great injustice, and on one occasion his employer^ 



248 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

for some expression of righteous resentment, threatened to 
chastise him, when the young woodsman, burning with indig- 
nation, raised the axe with which he was at work, and told him 
the attempt would cost him his life. Most fortunate for both, 
the attempt was not made, and at the close of his term he 
shouldered his knapsack, containing a few clothes and a supply 
of bread and dried venison, and set out on foot and alone for 
his father's house, a distance of something more than a hun- 
dred miles through the primeval forests. Mr. Fillmore in his 
autobiography remarks: "I think that this injustice — which 
was no more than other apprentices have suffered and will suf- 
fer — had a marked effect on my character. It made me feel 
for the weak and unprotected, and to hate the insolent tyrant 
in every station of life." 

In 1815 the youth again began the business of carding and 
cloth-dressing, which was carried on from June to December 
of each year. The first book that he purchased or owned 
was a small English dictionary, which he diligently studied 
while attending the carding machine. In 1819 he conceived 
the design of becoming a lawyer. Fillmore, who had yet two 
years of his apprenticeship to serve, agreed with his employer 
to relinquish his wages for the last year's services, and promised 
to pay thirty dollars for his time. Making an arrangement 
with a retired country lawyer, by which he was to receive his 
board in payment for his services in the office, he began the 
study of law, a part of the time teaching school, and so strug- 
gling on, overcoming almost insurmountable difficulties, till at 
length, in the spring of 1823, he was, at the intercession of 
several leading members of the Buffalo bar, whose confidence 
he had won, admitted as an attorney by the court of common 
pleas of Erie county, although he had not completed the 
course of study usually required. The writer has recently seen 
the dilapidated one-story building in Buffalo where Mr. Fill- 
more closed his career as a school-master, and has also con- 
versed with one of his pupils of sixty-five years ago. The wis- 
dom of his youth and early manhood gave presage of all that 
was witnessed and admired in the maturity of his character. 
Nature laid on him, in the kindly phrase of Wordsworth, " the 
strong hand of her purity," and even then he was remarked for 
that sweet courtesy of manner which accompanied him through 
life. Millard Fillmore began practice at Aurora, where his 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 



249 



father then resided, and fortunately won his first case and a fee 
offour dollars. In 1827 he was admitted as an attorney, and 
two years later as counsellor of the supreme court of the state. 
In 1830 he removed to Buffalo, and after a brief period formed 
a partnership with Nathan K. Hall, to which Solomon G. Haven 
was soon afterward admitted. 

By hard study and the closest application, combined with 
honesty and fidelity, Mr. Fillmore soon became a sound and 
successful lawyer, attaining a highly honorable position in the 
profession. The law-firm of Fillmore, Hall & Haven, which 
continued till 1847, was perhaps the most prominent in western 
New York, and was usually engaged in every important suit 
occurring in that portion of the state. In 1853, while still in 
Washington, Mr. Fillmore made an arrangement with Henry E. 
Davies to renew, on retiring from the presidency, the practice 
of his profession in New York in partnership with that gentle- 
man, who, after occupying a judge's seat in the court of appeals, 
returned to the bar. Family afflictions, however, combined 
with other causes, induced the ex-president to abandon his 
purpose. There were doubtless at that time men of more 
genius and greater eloquence at the bar of the great city ; but 
we can not doubt that Mr. Fillmore's solid legal learning, and 
the weight of his personal character, would have won for him 
the highest professional honors in the new field of action. 

Mr. Fillmore's political career began and ended with the 
birth and extinction of the great Whig party. In 1828 he was 
elected by Erie county to the state legislature of New York, 
serving for three terms, and retiring with a reputation for 
ability, integrity, and a conscientious performance of his public 
duties. He distinguished himself by his advocacy of the act to 
abolish imprisonment for debt, which was passed in 1831. The 
bill was drafted by Fillmore, excepting the portion relative to 
proceedings in courts of record, which were drawn by John C. 
Spencer. In 1832 he was elected to congress, and, after serv- 
ing for one term, retired until 1836, when he was re-elected, and 
again returned in 1838 and 1840, declining a renomination in 
1842. In the 27th congress Mr. Fillmore, as chairman of the 
committee on ways and means — a committee performing at that 
period not only the duties now devolving upon it, but those 
also which belong to the committee on appropriations — had 
herculean labors to perform. Day after day, for weeks and 



250 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



months, Fillmore had to encounter many of the ablest debaters 
of the house, but on all occasions he proved himself equal to 
the emergency. It should not be forgotten that, in the opinion 
of John Quincy Adams, there were more men of talent and a 
larger aggregate of ability in that congress than he had ever 
known. Although Mr, Fillmore did not claim to have discov- 
ered any original system of revenue, still the tariff of 1842 was 
a new creation, and he is most justly entitled to the distinction 
of being its author. It operated successfully, giving immedi- 
ate life to our languishing industries and national credit. At 
the same time Mr. Fillmore, with great labor, prepared a digest 
of the laws authorizing all appropriations reported by him to 
the house as chairman of the committee on ways and means, 
so that on the instant he could produce the legal authority for 
every expenditure which he recommended. Sensible that this 
was a great safeguard against improper expenditures, he pro- 
cured the passage of a resolution requiring the departments, 
when they submitted estimates of expenses, to accompany them 
with a reference to the laws authorizing them in each and 
every instance. This has ever since been the practice of the 
United States government. 

Mr. Fillmore retired from congress in 1843, and was a can- 
didate for the office of vice-president, supported by his own 
and several of the western states, in the Whig convention that 
met at Baltimore in May, 1844. In the following September 
he was nominated by acclamation for governor, but was de- 
feated by Silas Wright, his illustrious contemporary, Henry 
Clay, being vanquished at the same time in the presidential 
contest by James K. Polk. In 1847 Fillmore was elected comp- 
troller of the state of New York, an office which then included 
many duties now distributed among other departments. In 
his report of i Jan., 1849, he suggested that a national bank, 
with the stocks of the United States as the sole basis upon 
which to issue its currency, might be established and carried 
on, so as to prove a great convenience to the government, with 
perfect safety to the people. This idea involves the essential 
principle of our present system of national banks. 

In June, 1848, Millard Fillmore was nominated by the Whig 
national convention for vice-president, with Gen. Taylor, who 
had recently won military renown in Mexico, as president, and 
was in the following November elected, making, with the late 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 



251 



occupant of the office, seven vice-presidents of the United 
States from New York, a greater number than has been yet 
furnished by any other state. In February, 1849, Fillmore re- 
signed the comptrollership, and on 5 March he v^^as inaugurat- 
ed as vice-president. In 1826 Calhoun, of South Carolina, then 
vice-president, established the rule that that officer had no au- 
thority to call senators to order. During the heated contro- 
versies in the sessions of i849-'5o, occasioned by the applica- 
tion of California for admission into the Union, the vexed ques- 
tion of slavery in the new territories, and that of the rendition 
of fugitive slaves, in which the most acrimonious language 
was used, Mr. Fillmore, in a forcible speech to the senate, an- 
nounced his determination to maintain order, and that, should 
occasion require, he should resume the usage of his predeces- 
sors upon that point. This announcement met with unanimous 
approval of the senate, which directed the vice-president's re- 
marks to be entered in full on its journal. He presided during 
the exciting controversy on Clay's " omnibus bill " with his 
usual impartiality, and so perfectly even did he hold the scales 
that no one knew which policy he approved excepting the 
president, to whom he privately stated that, should he be re- 
quired to deposit a casting vote, it would be in favor of Henry 
Clay's bill. More than seven months of the session had been 
exhausted in angry controversy, when, on 9 July, 1850, the 
country was startled by the news of President Taylor's death. 
He passed away in the second year of his presidency, suddenly 
and most unexpectedly, of a violent fever, which was brought 
on by long exposure to the excessive heat of a fourth of July 
sun, while he was attending the public ceremonies of the day. 

It was a critical moment in the history of our country 
when Millard Fillmore was on Wednesday, 10 July, 1850, made 
president of the United States. With great propriety he re- 
duced the ceremony of his inauguration to an official act to be 
marked by solemnity without joy; and so, with an absence of 
the usual heralding of trumpet and shawm, he was unostenta- 
tiously sworn into his great office in the hall of representatives, 
in the presence of both houses. The chief justice of the- cir- 
cuit court of the District of Columbia — the venerable William 
Cranch, appointed fifty years before by President John Adams 
— administered the oath, which being done, the new president 
bowed and retired, and the ceremony was at an end. Mr. Fill- 



252 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 




more was then in the prime of life, possessing that which to the 
heathen philosopher seemed the greatest of all blessings — a 
sound mind in a sound body. The accompanying vignette 
portrait was taken at this time, while the large steel engraving 

is from a picture made some twenty 
years later. Of Fillmore's keen ap- 
preciation of the responsibility devolv- 
ing on him we have the evidence of 
letters written at that time, in which 
he says he should despair but for his 
humble reliance on God to help him 
in the honest, fearless, and faithful 
discharge of his great duties. Presi- 
dent Taylor's cabinet immediately re- 
signed, and a new and exceedingly 
^^y^ic^CaciXj yC^(-i-yuru> able one was selected by Mr. Fillmore, 
with Daniel Webster as secretary of 
state; Thomas Corwin, secretary of the treasury; William A. 
Graham, secretary of the navy ; Charles M. Conrad, secretary 
of war ; Alexander H. H. Stuart, secretary of the interior ; 
John J. Crittenden, attorney-general ; and Nathan K. Hall, 
postmaster-general.* Of these, Mr. Webster died, and Messrs. 
Graham and Hall retired in 1852, and were respectively re- 
placed by Edward Everett, John P. Kennedy, and Samuel D. 
Hubbard. Stuart, of Virginia, who died 13 Feb., 1891, was the 
last survivor of the illustrious men who aided Mr. Fillmore in 
guiding the ship of state during the most appalling political 
tempest, save one, which ever visited this fair land. 

It is certainly not the writer's wish to reawaken party feel- 
ings or party prejudice or to recall those great questions of 
pith and moment which so seriously disturbed congress and 
the country in the first days of Fillmore's administration, but 



* Buffalo enjoys the distinction of being the only city in the United States 
that has given the country two presidents. It is a singular coihcidence that 
both these chief magistrates should appoint their former law partners to the 
office of postmaster-general. Mr. Fillmore selected his partner, Judge Nathan 
Kelsey Hall, for that office. Judge Hall studied law in the office of Mr. Fill- 
more at Aurora. He was admitted to the bar in 1832, and became a copartner 
with his preceptor, who in the meantime had removed to Buffalo. For post- 
master-general in his second administration, Mr. Cleveland selected Wilson 
Shannon Bissell, for many years his law partner in Buffalo. 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 



253 



yet, even in so cursory a glance as we are now taking of his 
career, some comment would seem to be called for in respect 
to those public acts connected with slavery which appear to 
have most unreasonably and unjustly lost him the support of 
a large proportion of his party in the northern states. What- 
ever the wisdom of Mr. Fillmore's course may have been, it is 
impossible to doubt his patriotism or his honest belief that he 
was acting in accordance with his oath to obey the constitution 
of his country. The president's dream was peace — to preserve 
without hatred and without war tranquillity throughout the 
length and breadth of our broad land, and if in indulging this 
delusive dream he erred, it was surely an error that leaned to 
virtue's side. There is a legend that " he serves his party best 
who serves his country best." In Mr. Fillmore's action it is 
confidently believed that he thought not of party or of per- 
sonal interests, but only of his bounden duty to his country 
and her sacred constitution. 

One of the president's earliest official acts was to send a 
military force to New Mexico to protect that territory from 
invasion by Texas on account of its disputed boundary. Then 
followed the passage by a large majority of the celebrated 
compromise measures, mcluding the fugitive-slave law. The 
president referred to the attorney-general the question of its 
constitutionality, and that officer in a written opinion decided 
that it was constitutional. Fillmore and the strong cabinet 
that he had called around him concurred unanimously in this 
opinion, and the act was signed, together with the other com- 
promise measures. The fugitive-slave law was exceedingly 
obnoxious to a large portion of the Whig party of the north, 
as well as to the anti-slavery men, and its execution was re- 
sisted. Slaves in several .instances were rescued from the 
custody of the United States marshals, and a few citizens of 
Christiana, in Pennsylvania, were killed. Although it was 
admitted that Fillmore's administration as a whole was able, 
useful, and patriotic, although his purity as a public man was 
above suspicion, and no other act of his administration could 
be called unpopular, still, by the signing and attempted en- 
forcement of the fugitive-slave law and some of its unfortunate 
provisions, of which even Mr. Webster did not approve, the 
president, as has been already stated, lost the friendship and 
support of a large portion of his party in the north. 



254 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Mr. Fillmore's administration being in a political minority 
in both houses of congress, many wise and admirable measures 
recommended by him failed of adoption ; nevertheless we are 
indebted to him for cheap postage; for the extension of the 
national capitol, the corner-stone of which he laid 4 July, 185 1 ; 
for the Perry treaty, opening the ports of Japan, and for various 
valuable exploring expeditions. When South Carolina in one 
of her indignant utterances took Mr. Fillmore to task for send- 
ing a fleet to Charleston harbor, and he was ofificially ques- 
tioned as to his object and authority, the answer came promptly 
and to the purpose, *' By authority of the constitution of the 
United States, which has made the president commander-in- 
chief of the army and navy, and who recognizes no responsi- 
bility for his official action to the governor of South Carolina." 
With stern measures he repressed filibustering, and with equal 
firmness exacted from other countries respect for our flag. Mr. 
Fillmore carried out strictly the doctrine of non-intervention 
in the affairs of foreign nations, and frankly stated his policy 
to the highly-gifted Kossuth, who won all hearts by his sur- 
passing eloquence. At the same time, however, it was clearly 
shown how little the administration sympathized with Austria 
by the celebrated letter addressed to her ambassador, Hulse- 
mann, by Daniel Webster, who died soon after. His successor 
as secretary of state was Edward Everett, whose brief term of 
office was distinguished by his letter declining the proposition 
for a treaty by which England, France, and the United States 
were to disclaim then and for the future all intention to obtain 
possession of Cuba. In his last message, however, the presi- 
dent expressed an opinion against the incorporation of the 
island with this Union. 

Nothing in Mr. Fillmore's presidential career was, during 
the closing years of his life, regarded by himself with greater 
satisfaction than the suppressed portion of his last message of 
6 Dec, 1852. It was suppressed by the advice of the cabinet, 
all of whom concurred in the belief that, if sent in, it would 
precipitate an armed collision, and he readily acquiesced in 
their views. It related to the great political problem of the 
period — the balance of power between the free and the slave 
states. He fully and clearly appreciated the magnitude of the 
then approaching crisis, and in the document now under consid- 
eration proposed a judicious scheme of rescuing the country 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 



255 



from the horrors of a civil war, which soon after desolated so 
large a portion of the land. His perfectly practicable plan was 
one of African colonization, somewhat similar to one seriously 
entertained by his successor, Mr. Lincoln. Had President Fill- 
more's scheme been adopted, there are some who think that it 
would have been successful, and that our country might have 
been blessed with peace and prosperity, in lieu of the late war 
with its loss of half a million of precious lives and a debt of 
more than double the amount of the estimated cost of his plan 
of colonization. Mr. Fillmore retired from the presidency, 4 
March, 1853, leaving the country at peace with other lands and 
within her own borders, and in the enjoyment of a high degree 
of prosperity in all the various departments of industry. In 
his cabinet there had never been a dissenting voice in regard 
to any important measure of his administration, and, upon his 
retiring from office, a letter was addressed to him by all its 
members, expressing their united appreciation of his ability, 
his integrity, and his single-hearted and sincere devotion to 
the public service. 

The last surviving member of Fillmore's cabinet, who also 
sat in the 27th congress with him, m a communication, with 
which he favored the writer, says : " Mr. Fillmore was a man of 
decided opinions, buu he was always open to conviction. His 
aim was truth, and whenever he was convinced by reasoning 
that his first impressions were wrong, he had the moral courage 
to surrender them. But, when he had carefully examined a 
question and had satisfied himself that he was right, no power 
on earth could induce him to swerve from what he believed to 
be the line of duty. . . . There were many things about Mr. 
Fillmore, aside from his public character, which often filled me 
with surprise. While he enjoyed none of the advantages of early 
association with cultivated society, he possessed a grace and 
polish of manner which fitted him for the most refined circles 
of the metropolis. You saw, too, at a glance, that there was 
nothing in it which was assumed, but that it was the natural out- 
ward expression of inward refinement and dignity of character. 
I have witnessed, on several occasions, the display by him 
of attributes apparently of the most opposite character. When 
assailed in congress he exhibited a manly self-reliance and a 
lofty courage which commanded the admiration of every specta- 
tor, and yet no one ever manifested deeper sensibility, or more 



256 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

tender sympathy, with a friend in affliction. . . . He seemed to 
have the peculiar faculty of adapting himself to every position 
in which he was called to serve his country. When he was chair- 
man of the committee of ways and means, members of congress 
expressed their sense of his fitness by declaring that he was born 
to fill it. When he was elected vice-president, it was predicted 
that he would fail as the presiding officer of the senate, yet he 
acquitted himself in this new and untried position in such a 
manner as to command the applause of senators. And when 
advanced to the highest office of our country, he so fulfilled 
his duties as to draw forth the commendation of the ablest men 
of the opposite party. . . . For the last two years of my official 
association with Mr. Fillmore," adds Mr. Stuart, " our relations, 
both personal and political, were of an intimate and confiden- 
tial character. He knew that I was his steadfast friend, and 
he reciprocated the feeling. He talked with me freely and 
without reserve about men and measures, and I take pleasure 
in saying that in all my intercourse with him I never knew him 
to utter a sentiment or do an act which, in my judgment, would 
have been unworthy of Washington." 

His gifted contemporary, Henry Clay, thought highly of 
Fillmore's moderation and wisdom, said his administration was 
an able and honorable one, and on his death-bed recommended 
his nomination for the presidency (by the Baltimore conven- 
tion of 1852), as being a statesman of large civil experience, 
and one in whose career there was nothing inconsistent with 
the highest purity and patriotism. After leaving Washington 
for the last time, Webster said to a friend that Fillmore's admin- 
istration — leaving out of the question his own share of its work 
— was no doubt the ablest the country had possessed for many 
years. The same great statesman, in his speech at the laying of 
the corner-stone of the capitol extension, said: "President Fill- 
more, it is your singularly good fortune to perform an act such 
as that which the earliest of your predecessors performed fifty- 
eight years ago. You stand where he stood ; you lay your hand 
on the corner-stone he laid. Changed, changed is everything 
around. The same sun, indeed, shone upon his head which 
shines upon yours. The same broad river rolled at his feet, 
and now bathes his last resting-place, which now rolls at yours. 
But the site of this city was then mainly an open field. Streets 
and avenues have since been laid out and completed, squares 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 



257 



and public grounds inclosed and ornamented, until the city, 
which bears his name, although comparatively inconsiderable 
in numbers and wealth, has become quite fit to be the seat of 
government of a great and united people. Sir, may the con- 
sequences of the duty which you perform so auspiciously 
to-day equal those which flowed from his act. Nor this only: 
may the principles of your administration and the wisdom of 
your political conduct be such that the world of the present day 
and all history hereafter may be at no loss to perceive what 
example you made your study." 

It should be stated as a part of Mr. Fillmore's public record 
that he was a candidate for nomination as president at the 
Whig convention of 1852 ; but although his policy, the fugitive- 
slave law included, was approved by a vote of 227 against 60, 
he could not command 20 votes from the free states. Four 
years later, while at Rome, he received the news of his nomi- 
nation for the presidency by the American party. He accepted 
the nomination, but before the close of the campaign it became 
evident that the real struggle was between the Republicans 
and Democrats. Many, with whom Fillmore was the first 
choice for president, cast their votes for Gen. Fremont or James 
Buchanan, believing that there was no hope of his election, and, 
although he received the support of large numbers in all the 
states, Maryland alone gave him her electoral vote. In the 
summer of 1864 Col. Ogle Tayloe, of Washington, wrote to Mr. 
Fillmore on the subject of the presidential nomination, and 
his response was : " I can assure you in all sincerity that I 
have no desire ever to occupy that exalted station again, and 
more especially at a time like this." Apropos of letters, the 
writer had the privilege of perusing a collection of confidential 
correspondence written by President Fillmore during a score 
of years while in public life ; and, after a most careful examina- 
tion, failed to find a single passage that would not stand the 
light of day, not a word of ignoble office-seeking, no paltry 
tricks to gain notoriety, no base designs of fattening upon 
public plunder. 

Having thus glanced at the professional and political career 
of Mr. Fillmore, it now only remains to allude very briefly to 
his private life from 1853 onward. "The circles of our felici- 
ties make short arches." Who shall question the wise axiom 
of Sir Thomas Browne, the brave old knight of Norwich, a 



258 



LI FES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



favorite author with the president ? Three weeks after the 
close of his administration he sustained a severe affliction in the 
loss of his wife, Abigail Powers, the daughter of a clergyman, 
whom he married 5 Feb., 1826, and who was emphatically her 
husband's " right-hand." She had long been a sufferer from 
ill health and was looking forward most eagerly to a return to 
her old home, when she was taken away to those temples not 
made with hands. Irving says that she received her death- 
warrant while standing by his side on the cold marble terrace 
of the capitol, listening to the inaugural address of Mr. Fill- 
more's successor. To this Christian lady the White House is 
indebted for the books which to-day 
make the library one of the most at- 
tractive rooms in the presidential man- 
sion. In the following year their only 
daughter, who had grown to woman- 
hood, also passed away, leaving a mem- 
ory precious to all who had the privi- 
lege of her acquaintance. His home, 
now lonely from the loss of those who 
spread around it sunshine and happi- 
ness, induced Mr. Fillmore to carry 
out a long-cherished project of visit- 
ing the Old World, and in May, 1855, 
he sailed in the steamer "Atlantic." During his visit to Eng- 
land he received numerous and gratifying attentions from the 
queen and her cabinet ministers, and was proffered the degree 
of D. C. L. by the University of Oxford, through its chancellor, 
the Earl of Derby, the gifted orator who was known as the 
" Rupert of debate." This honor he however declined, as did 
Charles Francis Adams a few years later while American min- 
ister to the court of St. James. They were alike indisposed to 
submit to the scenes usual on such occasions. 

We can not dwell as we could wish on Mr. Fillmore's pa- 
triotic attitude during the early years of the late war; of his 
warm interest in all the charitable Christian work of the city in 
which he passed nearly half a century ; of his establishing the 
Buffalo historical society ; how, as the first citizen of Buffalo, 
he was called upon to welcome distinguished visitors, including 
Mr. Lincoln, when on his way to Washington in 1861, and 
frequently to preside over conventions and other public gather- 




MILLARD FILLMORE. 



259 



ings, for the control of which he was so admirably qualified by 
his thorough parliamentary abilities, his widely extended knowl- 
edge, his broad views, and a personal urbanity which nothing 
could disturb ; of the method and exactness, the precision and 
punctuality, with which he conducted his private affairs, as in 
earlier years he had performed his professional and public 
duties; of another visit to Europe in 1866, accompanied by his 
second wife, Caroline C. Mcintosh, who survived him for seven 
years ; of his manner of life in dignified retirement, surrounded 
by all the comfort and luxuries of a beautiful and well-appoint- 
ed mansion, including a large library, and with an attached 
wife to share his happy home (see accompanying illustration). 
In a letter written to his friend Mr. Corcoran, of Washington, 
but a few weeks before the inevitable hour came, he remarks: 
" I am happy to say that my health is perfect. I eat, drink, and 
sleep as well as ever, and take a deep but silent interest in 
public affairs, and if Mrs. Fillmore's health can be restored, I 
should feel that I was in the enjoyment of an earthly paradise." 
The ex-president accepted an invitation to meet the surviv- 
ing members of his cabinet and a few other valued friends at 
the residence of Mr. Corcoran. The month of January, 1874, 
was designated as the date of the meeting, but was afterward 
changed to April, by Mr. Fillmore's request. Before that time 
he was no longer among the living. After a short illness, at 
ten minutes past eleven o'clock, on Sunday evening, 8 March, 
Millard Fillmore 

*' Gave his honors to the world again, 

His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace." 

He was gathered to his fathers at the ripe age of seventy- 
four years, and passed away without the knowledge that his 
former partner, Judge Hall, with whom he had been so long 
and so closely united in the bonds of friendship, as well as in 
professional and political life, had also, a few days previous, 
rested from his labors, and was then lying in the Forest Lawn 
cemetery, where the ex-president now sleeps by his side. 

A phenomenal instance of literary vandalism occured in the 
city of Buffalo, early in 1891, when all the valuable letters and 
documents relating to the administration of Millard Fillmore 
were destroyed by the executor of the ex-president's only son, 
Millard Powers Fillmore, whose will contained a mandate to 
18 



26o 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



m/^' 







that effect. Why he should have wished in this way to destroy 
an important part of the history of his country, as well as of his 
father's honorable career, or why any intelligent lawyer should 
have consigned to the flames thousands of papers by Webster 

and other illustrious men without at 
least causing copies of the most valu- 
able of them to be made, is entire- 
ly beyond the comprehension of or- 
dinary mortals. To the writer, in 
pointing out his carefully preserved 
papers, contained in the library of 
his beautiful home in Buffalo, repre- 
sented in the accompanying vignette, 
the ex-president said : " In those cases 
can be found every important letter 
and document which I received dur- 
ing my administration, and which will 
enable the future historian or biog- 
rapher to prepare an authentic ac- 
~~ ' ^ count of that period of our country's 

history." The only opportunity probably that ever would pre- 
sent itself for properly defending and explaining the signing of 
the fugitive-slave bill; the existence of an unquestioned and 
strong public sentiment in favor of the president's doing so; 
the recommendations that the act be done, made by Mr. Fill- 
more's most eminent advisers — the proof of all these thmgs 
unquestionably would have been presented by the letters and 
documents referred to ; and now every one of these is gone. 

Among the chief magistrates of our country there appear 
more brilliant names than Fillmore's, yet none who more wisely 
led on the nation to progress and prosperity, making her name 
great and preserving peace in most perilous times, without in- 
voking the power of the sword, or one who could more truth- 
fully say, " These hands are clean." Without being a genius 
like Webster or Hamilton, he was a safe and sagacious states- 
man. He possessed a mind so nicely adjusted and well bal- 
anced that he was fitted for the fulfilment of any duty which 
he was called to perform. He was always ready to give up 
everything but conviction when once convinced. A single 
public act honestly and unflinchingly performed cost him his 
popularity. Posterity, looking from a distance, will perhaps be 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 26 1 

more just. All his acts, whether daily and common or deliberate 
and well-considered, were marked with modesty, justice, and 
sincerity. What Speaker Onslow said of Sir Robert Walpole 
was equally true of President Fillmore : " He was the best man 
from, the goodness of his heart, to live with and under, of any 
great man I ever knew." His was an eminently kindly nature, 
and the last time the writer saw him, in 1873, he was relieving, 
with a liberal hand, the necessities of an old and unfortunate 
friend. He was a sound, practical Christian " without knowing 
it," as Pope remarked of a contemporary. His temper was 
perfect, and it is doubtful if he left an enemy on earth. Fred- 
erick the Great announced with energy that " Peter the First 
of Russia, to govern his nation, worked upon it like aquafortis 
upon iron." Fillmore, to win his way, like Lincoln and Gar- 
field, from almost hopeless poverty to one of the most eminent 
positions of the world, showed equal determination, oftentimes 
working, for weeks and months together, till long past mid- 
night, which happily his powers of physical endurance permit- 
ted him to do with impunity, and affording a fine illustration of 
the proud boast of our country, that its loftiest honors are the 
legitimate objects of ambition to the humblest in the land, as 
well as to those favored by the gifts of fortune and high birth. 
See Chamberlain's " Biography of Millard Fillmore " (Buffalo, 
1856) ; Benton's " Abridgment of the Debates of Congress from 
1789 to 1856," vol. xvi. (New York, 1861) ; Thompson's "The 
Presidents and their Administrations" (Indianapolis, 1873); 
Address before the Buffalo Historical Society, by James Grant 
Wilson (Buffalo, 1878) ; Von Hoist's " Constitutional and Po- 
litical History of the United States," vol. iv. (Chicago. 1885). 



FRANKLIN PIERCE. 

Franklin Pierce, fourteenth president of the United 
States, born in Hillsborough, N. H., 23 Nov., 1804; died in 
Concord, N. H., 8 Oct., 1869. His father, Benjamin Pierce 
(born in Chelmsford, Mass., 25 Dec, 1757 ; died in Hills- 
borough, N. H., I April, 1839), on the day of the battle of Lex- 
ington enlisted in the patriot army and served until its disband- 
ment in 1784, attaining the rank of captain and brevet major. 
He had intense political convictions, was a Republican of the 
school of Jefferson, an ardent admirer of Jackson, and the 
leader of his party in New Hampshire, of which he was elected 
governor in 1827 and 1829. He was a farmer, and trained his 
children in his own simple and laborious habits. Discerning 
signs of future distinction in his son Franklin, he gave him an 
academical education in well-known institutions at Hancock, 
Francestown, and Exeter, and in 1820 sent him to Bowdoin 
college, Brunswick, Me. His college-mates there were John P. 
Hale, his future political rival. Prof. Calvin E. Stowe, Sergeant 
S. Prentiss, the distinguished orator, Henry W. Longfellow, and 
Nathaniel Hawthorne, his future biographer and life-long per- 
sonal friend. His ambition was then of a martial cast, and as 
an officer in a company of college students he enthusiastically 
devoted himself to the study of military tactics. This is one 
reason why he found himself at the foot of his class at the end 
of two years in college. Stung by a sense of disgrace, he de- 
voted the two remaining years to hard study, and when he was 
graduated in 1824 he was third in his class. While in college, 
like many other eminent Americans, he taught in winter. After 
taking his degree he began the study of law at Portsmouth, in 
the office of Levi Woodbury, where he remained about a year. 
He afterward spent two years in the law-school at Northamp- 
ton, Mass., and in the office of Judge Edmund Parker at Am- 



FRANKLIN PIERCE. 



263 



herst, N. H. In 1827 he was admitted to the bar and began 
practice in his native town. Soon afterward he argued his first 
jury cause in the court-house at Amherst. This effort (as is 
often the case with eminent orators) was a failure. But he 
was not despondent. He replied to the sympathetic expres- 
sions of a friend : " I will try nine hundred and ninety-nme 
cases, if clients continue to trust me, and if I fail just as I 
have to-day, I will try the thousandth. I shall live to argue 
cases in this court-house in a manner that will mortify neither 
myself nor my friends." 

With his popular qualities it was inevitable that he should 
take a prominent part in the sharp political contests of his na- 
tive state. He espoused the cause of Gen. Jackson with ardor, 
and in 1829 was elected to represent his native town in the 
legislature, where, by three subsequent elections, he served four 
years, the last two as speaker, for which office he received 
three fourths of all the votes of the house. In 1833 he was 
elected to represent his native district in the lower house of 
congress, where he remained four years. He served on the 
judiciary and other important committees, but did not partici- 
pate largely in the debates. That could not be expected of so 
young a man in a body containing so many veteran politicians 
and statesmen who had already acquired a national reputa- 
tion. But in February, 1834, he made a vigorous and sensible 
speech against the Revolutionary claims bill, condemning it as 
opening the door to fraud. In December, 1835, he spoke and 
voted against receiving petitions for the abolition of slavery in 
the District of Columbia. In June, 1836, he spoke against a 
bill making appropriations for the military academy at West 
Point. He contended that that institution was aristocratic in 
its tendencies, that a professional soldiery and standing armies 
are always dangerous to the liberties of the people, and that 
in war the republic must rely upon her citizen militia. His 
experience in the Mexican war afterward convinced him that 
such an institution is necessary, and he frankly acknowledged 
his error. It is hardly necessary to add that while in congress 
Mr. Pierce sustained President Jackson in opposing the so- 
called internal improvement policy. In 1837 he was elected to 
the U. S. senate. He was the youngest member of that body, 
and had barely arrived at the legal age for that office when he 
took his seat. In January, 1840, he spoke upon the Indian war 



264 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

in Florida, defending the secretary of war from the attacks of 
his political opponents. In December of the same year he ad- 
vocated and carried through the senate a bill granting a pen- 
sion to an aged woman whose husband, Isaac Davis, had been 
among the first to fall at Concord bridge on 19 April, 1775- 
In July, 1841, he spoke against the fiscal bank bill, and in favor 
of an amendment prohibiting members of congress from bor- 
rowing money of the bank. At the same session he made a 
strong speech against the removal of government officials for 
their political opinions, in violation of the pledges to the con- 
trary which the Whig leaders had given to the country in the 
canvass of 1840. During the five years that he remained in the 
senate it numbered among its members Benton, Buchanan, 
Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Woodbury, and Silas Wright, an array 
of veteran statesmen and intellectual giants who had long been 
party leaders, and who occupied the whole field of debate. 
Among such men the young, modest, and comparatively ob- 
scure member from New Hampshire could not, with what his 
biographer calls " his exquisite sense of propriety," force him- 
self into a conspicuous position. There is abundant proof, 
however, that he won the friendship of his eminent associates. 
In 1842 he resigned his seat in the senate, with the intention 
of permanently withdrawing from public life. He again re' 
turned to the practice of law, settling in Concord, N. H., 
whither he had removed his family in 1838, and where he ever 
afterward resided. In 1845 he was tendered by the governor 
of New Hampshire, but declined, an appointment to the U. S. 
senate to fill the vacancy occasioned by the appointment of 
Levi Woodbury to the U. S. supreme bench. He also declined 
the nomination for governor tendered to him by the Democratic 
state convention. He declined, too, an appointment to the 
office of U. S. attorney-general, offered to him in 1845 by 
President Polk, by a letter in which he said that when he left 
the senate he did so " with the fixed purpose never again to be 
voluntarily separated from his family for any considerable 
time, except at the call of his country in time of war." But 
while thus evincing his determination to remain in private life, 
he did not lose his interest in political affairs. In the councils 
of his party in New Hampshire he exercised a very great influ- 
ence. He zealously advocated the annexation of Texas, de- 
claring that, while he preferred it free, he would take it with 



FRANKLIN PIERCE. 



265 



ii-~'M^ 




slavery rather than not have it at all. When John P. Hale, in 
1845, accepted a Democratic renomination to congress, in a let- 
ter denouncing annexation, the Democratic leaders called an- 
other convention, which repudiated him and nominated another 
candidate. Through the long struggle that followed. Pierce 
led the Democrats of 
his state with great .iJj^^l 
skill and unfaltering 
courage, though not 
always to success He 
found in Hale a rival 
worthy of his steel. 
A debate between the 
two champions, in the 
old North church at 
Concord, aroused the 

keenest interest throughout the state. Each party was satisfied 
with its own advocate; but to contend against the rising anti- 
slavery sentiment of the north was a hopeless struggle. The 
stars in their courses fought against slavery. Hale was elected 
to the U. S. senate in 1846 by a coalition of Whigs and Freesoil- 
ers, and several advocates of free-soil principles were elected 
to congress from New Hampshire before 1850. 

In 1846 the war with Mexico began, and New Hampshire 
was called on for a battalion of troops. Pierce's military, 
ardor was rekindled. He immediately enrolled himself as a 
private in a volunteer company that was organized at Con- 
cord, enthusiastically began studying tactics and drilling in the 
ranks, and was soon appointed colonel of the 9th regiment of 
infantry. On 3 March, 1847, he received from President Polk 
the commission of brigadier-general in the volunteer army. 
On 27 May, 1847, he embarked at Newport, R. I., in the bark 
"Kepler," with Col. Ransom, three companies of the 9th regi- 
ment of infantry, and the officers of that detachment, arriving 
at Vera Cruz on 28 June. Much difficulty was experienced in 
procuring mules for transportation, and the brigade was de- 
tained in that unhealthful locality, exposed to the ravages of 
yellow fever, until 14 July, when it began its march to join the 
main army under Gen. Winfield Scott at Puebla. The junction 
was effected (after a toilsome march and several encounters 
with guerillas) on 6 Aug., and the next day Gen. Scott began 



266 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

his advance on the city of Mexico. On 19 Aug. the battle of 
Contreras was fought. The Mexican General Valencia, with 
7,000 troops, occupied a strongly intrenched camp. Gen. 
Scott's plan was to divert the attention of the enemy by a 
feigned attack on his front, while his flank could be turned and 
his retreat cut off. But the flanking movement being much de- 
layed, the attack in front (in which Gen. Pierce led his brigade) 
became a desperate struggle, in which 4,000 raw recruits, who 
could not use their artillery, fought 7,000 disciplined soldiers, 
strongly intrenched and raining round shot and shells upon 
their assailants. To reach the enemy, the Americans who at- 
tacked in front were obliged to cross the pedregal, or lava-bed, 
the crater of an extinct volcano, bristling with sharp, jagged, 
splintered rocks, which afforded shelter to the Mexican skir- 
mishers. Gen. Pierce's horse stepped into a cleft between two 
rocks and fell, breaking his own leg and throwing his rider, 
whose knee was seriously injured. Though suffering severely, 
and urged by the surgeon to withdraw. Gen. Pierce refused to 
leave his troops. Mounting the horse of an officer who had 
just been mortally wounded, he rode forward and remained in 
the saddle until eleven o'clock at night. The next morning 
Gen. Pierce was in the saddle at daylight, but the enemy's camp 
was stormed in the rear by the flanking party, and those of its 
defenders who escaped death or capture fled in confusion 
toward Churubusco, where Santa-Anna had concentrated his 
forces. Though Gen. Pierce's injuries were intensely painful, 
and though Gen. Scott advised him to leave the field, he insist- 
ed on remaining. His brigade and that of Gen. James Shields, 
in obeying an order to make a detour and attack the enemy in 
the rear, struck the Mexican reserves, by whom they were 
largely outnumbered, and a bloody and obstinate struggle fol- 
lowed. By this diversion Gens. Worth and Pillow were en- 
abled to carry the head of the bridge at the front, and relieve 
Pierce and Shields from the pressure of overwhelming numbers. 
In the advance of Pierce's brigade his horse was unable to 
cross a ditch or ravine, and he was compelled to dismount and 
proceed on foot. Overcome by the pain of his injured knee, 
he sank to the ground, unable to proceed, but refused to be 
taken from the field, and remained under fire until the enemy 
were routed. After these defeats, Santa-Anna, to gain time, 
opened negotiations for peace, and Gen. Scott appointed Gen. 



FRANKLIN PIERCE. 



267 



Pierce one of the commissioners to agree upon terms of 
armistice. The truce lasted a fortnight, when Gen. Scott, dis- 
coving Santa-Anna's insincerity, again began hostilities. The 
sanguinary battles of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec soon 
followed, on 14 Sept., 1847, the city of Mexico capitulated, and 
the war was virtually over. Though Gen. Pierce had little 
opportunity to distinguish himself as a general in this brief 
war, he displayed a personal bravery and a regard for the wel- 
fare of his men that won him the highest credit. He also 
gained the ardent friendship of those with whom he came in 
contact, and that friendship did much for his future elevation. 
On the return of peace in December, 1847, Gen. Pierce returned 
to his home and to the practice of his profession. Soon after 
this the New Hampshire legislature presented him, in behalf of 
the state, with a fine sword. 

In 1850 Gen. Pierce was elected to represent the city of 
Concord in a constitutional convention, and when that body 
met he was chosen its president by a nearly unanimous 
vote. During its session he made strenuous and successful 
efforts to procure the adoption of an amendment abolish- 
ing the religious test that made none but Protestants eli- 
gible to office. But that amendment failed of adoption by 
the people, though practically and by common consent the 
restriction was disregarded. From 1847 till 1852 Gen. Pierce 
was arduously engaged in his profession. As an advocate he 
was never surpassed, if ever equalled, at the New Hampshire 
bar. He had the external advantages of an orator, a hand- 
some, expressive face, an elegant figure, graceful and impressive 
gesticulation, and a clear, musical voice, which kindled the 
blood of his hearers like the notes of a trumpet, or melted 
them to tears by its pathos. His manner had a courtesy 
that sprang from the kindness of his heart and contributed 
much to his political and professional success. His perceptions 
were keen, and his mind seized at once the vital points of a 
case, while his ready command of language enabled him to 
present them to an audience so clearly that they could not be 
misunderstood. He had an intuitive knowledge of human 
nature, and the numerous illustrations that he drew from the 
daily lives of his strong-minded auditors made his speeches 
doubly effective. He was not a diligent student, nor a reader 
of many books, yet the keenness of his intellect and his natural 



268 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

capacity for reasoning often enabled him, with but little prepa- 
ration, to argue successfully intricate questions of law. 

The masses of the Democratic party in the free states so 
strongly favored the exclusion of slavery from the territory 
ceded by Mexico that their leaders were compelled to yield, and 
from 1847 till 1850 their resolutions and platforms advocated 
free-soil principles. This was especially the case in New 
Hampshire, and even Gen. Pierce's great popularity could not 
stem the tide. But in 1850 the passage of the so-called "com- 
promise measures " by congress, the chief of which were the 
fugitive-slave law and the admission of California as a free 
state, raised a new issue. Adherence to those measures became 
to a great extent a test of party fidelity in both the Whig and 
Democratic parties. Gen. Pierce zealously championed them 
in New Hampshire, and at a dinner given to him and other 
personal friends by Daniel Webster at his farm-house in 
Franklin, N. H., Pierce, in an eloquent speech, assured the great 
Whig statesman that if his own party rejected him for his 7th 
of March speech, the Democracy would " lift him so high that 
his feet would not touch the stars." Finally the masses of 
both the great parties gave to the compromise measures a sullen 
acquiescence, on the ground that they were a final settlement 
of the slavery question. The Democratic national convention 
met at Baltimore, 12 June, 1852. After thirty-five ballotings 
for a candidate for president, in which Gen. Pierce's name did 
not appear, the Virginia delegation brought it forward, and on 
the 49th ballot he was nominated by 282 votes to 11 for all 
others. James Buchanan, Stephen A. Douglas, Lewis Cass, 
and William L. Marcy were his chief rivals. Gen. Winfield 
Scott, the Whig candidate, was unsatisfactory both to the north 
and to the south. Webster and his friends leaned toward 
Pierce, and in the election in November, Scott carried only 
Massachusetts, Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee, with 42 
votes, while Pierce carried all the other states with 254 votes. 
The Whig party had received its death-stroke, and dissolved. 

In his inaugural address, 4 March, 1853, President Pierce 
maintained the constitutionality of slavery and the fugitive- 
slave law, denounced slavery agitation, and hoped that " no 
sectional or ambitious or fanatical excitement might again 
threaten the durability of our institutions, or obscure the light 
of our prosperity." On 7 March he announced as his cabinet 







^^C ./Vy ^ ^ /^^L(<- 



5- ^ 










FRANKLIN PIERCE. 



269 



William L. Marcy, of New York, secretary of state; James 
Guthrie, of Kentucky, secretary of the treasury; Jefferson 
Davis, of Mississippi, secretary of war ; James C. Dobbin, of 
North Carolina, secretary of the navy; Robert McClelland, of 
Michigan, secretary of the interior; James Campbell, of Penn- 
sylvania, postmaster-general ; and Caleb Cushing, of Mas- 
sachusetts, attorney-general. This cabmet was one of eminent 
ability, and is the only one in our history that remained 
unchanged for four years. In 1853 a boundary dispute arose 
between the United States and Mexico, which was settled by 
negotiation and resulted in the acquisition of a part of the ter- 
ritory, which was organized under the name of Arizona in 1863. 
Proposed routes for a railroad to the Pacific were explored and 
voluminous reports thereon published under the direction of 
the war department. A controversy with Great Britain respect- 
ing the fisheries was adjusted by mutual concessions. The 
affair of Martin Koszta, a Hungarian refugee, who was seized 
at Smyrna by an Austrian vessel and given up on the demand 
of the captain of an American ship-of-war, excited great inter- 
est in Europe and redounded to the credit of our government. X 
In 1854 a treaty was negotiated at Washington between the 
United States and Great Britain providing for commerical 
reciprocity for ten years between the former country and the 
Canadian provinces. That treaty and one negotiated by Com. 
Matthew C. Perry with Japan, which opened the ports of that 
hitherto unknown country to commerce, were ratified at the 
same session of the senate. In the spring of 1854, Greytown 
in Nicaragua was bombarded and mostly burned by the U. S. 
frigate " Cyane," in retaliation for the refusal of the authori- 
ties to make reparation for the property of American citizens 
residing there, which had been stolen. In the following year 
William Walker, with a party of filibusters, invaded Nicaragua, 
and in the autumn of 1856 won an ephemeral success, which 
induced President Pierce to recognize the minister sent by 
him to Washington. In the winter of i854-'5, and in the 
spring of the latter year, by the sanction of Mr. Crampton, 
the British minister at Washington, recruits for the British 
army in the Crimea were secretl}' enlisted in this country. 
President Pierce demanded Mr. Crampton's recall, which be- 
ing refused, the president dismissed not only the minister, 
but also the British consuls at New York, Philadelphia, and 



270 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Cincinnati, for their complicity in sucli enlistments. The dif- 
ficulty was finally adjusted by negotiation, and a new British 
legation was sent to Washington. In 1855 President Pierce 
signed bills to reorganize the diplomatic and consular system 
of the United States, to organize the court of claims, to provide 
a retired list for the navy, and to confer the title of lieutenant- 
general on Winfield Scott. President Pierce adhered to that 
strict construction of the constitution which Jefferson and 
Jackson had insisted on. In 1854 he vetoed a bill making 
appropriations for public works, and another granting 10,- 
000,000 acres of public lands to the states for relief of 
indigent insane. In February, 1855, he vetoed a bill for pay- 
ment of the French spoliation claims, and in the following 
month another increasing the appropriation for the Edward K. 
Collins line of Atlantic steamers. 

The policy of Pierce's administration upon the question of 
slavery evoked an extraordinary amount of popular excitement, 
and led to tremendous and lasting results. That policy was 
based on the theory that the institution of slavery was imbed- 
ded in and guaranteed by the constitution of the United States, 
and that therefore it was the duty of the National government 
to protect it. The two chief measures in support of such a 
policy, which originated with and were supported by Pierce's 
administration, were the conference of American diplomatists 
that promulgated the " Ostend manifesto," and opening of the 
the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to slavery. Filibuster- 
ing expeditions from the United States to Cuba under Lopez, 
in 1850 and 185 1, aroused anxiety in Europe as to the attitude 
of our government toward such enterprises. In 1852 Great 
Britain and France proposed to the United States a tripartite 
treaty by which the three powers should disclaim all intention 
of acquiring Cuba, and discountenance such an attempt by any 
power. On i Dec, 1852, Edward Everett, who was then secre- 
tary of state, declined to act, declaring, however, that our gov- 
ernment would never question Spain's title to the island. On 
16 Aug., 1854, President Pierce directed James Buchanan, John 
Y. Mason, and Pierre Soule, the American ministers to Great 
Britain, France, and Spain, to meet and discuss the Cuban 
question. They met at Ostend, 9 Oct., and afterward at Aix 
la Chapelle, and sent to their government that famous despatch 
known as the " Ostend manifesto." It declared that if Spain 



FRANKLIN PIERCE. 



271 



should obstinately refuse to sell Cuba, self-preservation would 
make it incumbent on the United States to wrest it from her 
and prevent it from being Africanized into a second Santo Do- 
mingo. But the hostile attitude of the great European powers, 
and the Kansas and Nebraska excitement, shelved the Cuban 
question till 1858, when a feeble and abortive attempt was 
made in congress to authorize its purchase for $30,000,000. 

President Pierce, in his first message to congress, December, 
1853, spoke of the repose that had followed the compromises 
of 1850, and said : " That this repose is to suffer no shock during 
my official term if I have power to prevent it, those who placed 
me here may be assured." Doubtless such was then his hope 
and belief. In the following January, Mr. Douglas, chairman 
of the senate committee on the territories, introduced a bill to 
organize the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, which permit- 
ted slavery north of the parallel of 36° 30' in a region from 
which it had been forever excluded by the Missouri compromise 
of 1820. That bill was Mr. Douglas's bid for the presidency. 
Southern politicians could not reject it and retain their influence 
at home. Northern politicians who opposed it gave up all 
hope of national preferment, which then seemed to depend on 
southern support. The defeat of the bill seemed likely to 
sever and destroy the Democratic organization, a result which 
many believed would lead to civil war and the dissolution of 
the Union. Borne onward by the aggressive spirit of slavery, 
by political ambition, by the force of party discipline, and the 
dread of sectional discord, the bill was passed by congress, and 
on 31 May received the signature of the president. Slavery had 
won, but there never was a more costly victory. The remain- 
der of Pierce's term was embittered by civil war in Kansas and 
the disasters of his party in the free states. In 1854, with a 
Democratic majority in both houses of the New Hampshire 
legislature, the influence of the national administration could 
not secure the election of a Democratic U. S. senator, and at 
the next election in 1855 the Democracy lost control of the 
state. The repeal of the Missouri compromise was soon fol- 
lowed by organized efforts in the free states to fill Kansas with 
anti-slavery settlers. To such movements the south responded 
by armed invasions. On 30 March, 1855, a territorial legis- 
lature was elected in Kansas by armed bands from Missouri, 
who crossed the border to vote and then returned to their 



272 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDE.VTS. 



homes. That initiative gave to the pro-slavery men a tech- 
nical advantage, which the Democratic leaders were swift to 
recognize. The pro-slavery legislature thus elected met at 
Pawnee on 2 July, 1855, and enacted an intolerant and oppres- 
sive slave code, which was mainly a transcript of the laws of 
Missouri. The free-state settlers thereupon called a con- 
stitutional convention, which met on 23 Oct., 1855, and framed 
a state constitution, which was adopted by the people by a vote 
of 1,731 to 46. A general assembly was then elected under 
such constitution, which, after passing some 
preliminary acts, appointed a committee to 
frame a code of laws, and took measures to 
apply to congress for the admission of Kan- 
sas mto the Union as a state. Andrew H. 
Reeder was elected by the free-state men 
their delegate to congress. A majority of 
the actual settlers of Kansas were in favor 
of her admission into the Union as a free 
state; but all their efforts to that end were 
treated by their opponents in the territory, 
and by the Democratic national administra- 
tion, as rebellion against lawful authority. 
This conflict kept the territory in a state of confusion and 
bloodshed, and excited party feeling throughout the country to 
fever heat. It remained unsettled, to vex Buchanan's admin- 
istration and further develop the germs of disunion and san- 
guinary civil war. 

On 2 June, 1856, the National Democratic convention met 
at Cincinnati to nominate a candidate for president. On the 
first ballot James Buchanan had 135 votes, Pierce 122, Douglas 
33, Cass 6, Pierce's vote gradually diminished, and on the 17th 
ballot Buchanan was nominated unanimously. In August the 
house of representatives attached to the army appropriation 
bill a proviso that no part of the army should be employed to 
enforce the laws of the Kansas territorial legislature until con- 
gress should have declared its validity. The senate refused to 
concur, and congress adjourned without passing the bill. It 
was immediately convened by proclamation, and passed the 
bill without the proviso. The president's message in December 
following was mainly devoted to Kansas affairs, and was in- 
tensely hostile to the free-state party. His term ended on 4 




FRANKLIN PIERCE. 



273 



March, 1857, and he returned to his home in Concord. Soon 
afterward he visited Madeira, and extended his travels to 
Great Britain and the continent of 'Europe. He remained 
abroad nearly three years, returning to Concord early in i860. 
In the presidential election of that year he took no active part, 
but his influence was cast against Stephen A. Douglas and in 
favor of John C. Breckinridge. 

In a letter addressed to Jefferson Davis, under date of 6 
Jan., i860, he wrote : " Without discussing the question of right, 
of abstract power to secede, I have never believed that actual 
disruption of the Union can occur without bloodshed ; and if, 
through the madness of northern Abolitionists, that dire 
calamity must come, the fighting will not be along Mason and 
Dixon's line merely. It will be within our own borders, in our 
own streets, between the two classes of citizens to whom I 
have referred. Those who defy law and scout constitutional 
obligations will, if we ever reach the arbitrament of arms, find 
occupation enough at home. ... I have tried to impress upon 
our own people, especially in New Hampshire and Connecticut, 
where the only elections are to take place during the coming 
spring, that, while our Union meetings are all in the right 
direction and well enough for the present, they will not be 
worth the paper upon v/hich their resolutions are written unless 
we can overthrow abolitionism at the polls and repeal the 
unconstitutional and obnoxious laws which in the cause of 
'personal liberty ' have been placed upon our statute-books." 
On 21 April, 1861, nine days after the disunionists had begun 
civil war by firing on Fort Sumter, he addressed a Union 
mass-meeting at Concord, and urged the people to sustain the 
government against the southern Confederacy. From that 
time until his death he lived in retirement at Concord. To the 
last he retained his hold upon the hearts of his personal friends, 
and the exquisite urbanity of his earlier days. His wife and 
his three children had preceded him to the tomb. 

Some years after Pierce's death the legislature of New 
Hampshire, in behalf of the state, placed his portrait beside the 
speaker's desk in the hall of the house of representatives at 
Concord. Time has softened the harsh judgment that his 
political foes passed upon him in the heat of party strife and 
civil war. His generosity and kindness of heart are gratefully 
remembered by those who knew him, and particularly by the 



274 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS, 



younger members of his profession, whom he was always ready 
to aid and advise. It is remembered that in his professional 
career he was ever willing, at whatever risk to his fortune or 
popularity, to shield the poor and obscure from oppression and 
injustice. It is remembered, too, that he sought in public life 
no opportunities for personal gain. His integrity was above 
suspicion. After nine years' service in congress and in the sen- 
ate of the United States, after a brilliant and successful pro- 
fessional career and four years in the presidency, his estate 
hardly amounted to $72,000. In his whole political career he 
always stood for a strict construction of the constitution, for 
economy and frugality in public affairs, and for a strict account- 
ability of public officials to their constituents. No political or 
personal influence could induce him to shield those whom he 
believed to have defrauded the government. Pierce had am- 
bition, but greed for public office was foreign to his nature. 
Few, if any, instances can be found in our history where a man 
of thirty-eight, in the full vigor of health, voluntarily gave up 
a seat in the U. S. senate, which he was apparently sure to re- 
tain as long as he wished. His refusal at the age of forty-one 
to leave his law-practice for the place of attorney-general in 
Polk's cabinet is almost without a parallel. Franklin Pierce, 
too, was a true patriot and a sincere lover of his country. The 
Revolutionary services of a father whom he revered were con- 
stantly in his thoughts. Two of his brothers, with that 
father's consent, took an honorable part in the war of 1812. 
His only sister was the wife of Gen. John H. McNeil, as gal- 
lant an officer as ever fought for his country. To decline a 
cabinet appointment and enlist as a private soldier in the army 
of his country were acts which one who knew his early train- 
ing and his chivalrous character might reasonably expect of 
him. But for slavery and the questions growing out of it, his 
administration would have passed into history as one of the 
most successful in our national life. To judge him justly, his 
political training and the circumstances that environed him 
must be taken into account. Like his honored father, he be- 
lieved that the statesmen of the Revolution had agreed to 
maintain the legal rights of the slave-holders, and that without 
such agreement we should have had no Federal constitution or 
Union. He believed that good faith required that agreement 
to be performed. In that belief all or nearly all the leaders of 



FRANKLIN PIERCE. 



275 



both the great parties concurred. However divided on other 
questions, on that the south was a unit. The price of its po- 
litical support was compliance with its demands, and both the 
old parties (however reluctantly) paid the price. Political lead- 
ers believed that, unless it was paid, civil war and disunion 
would result, and their patriotism re-enforced their party spirit 
and personal ambition. Among them all there were probably 
few whose conduct would have been essentially different from 
that of Pierce had they been in the same situation. He gave 
his support to the repeal of the Missouri compromise with 
great reluctance, and in the belief that the measure would 
satisfy the south and thus avert from the country the doom of 
civil war and disunion. See the lives by Nathaniel Hawthorne 
(Boston, 1852) and David W. Bartlett (Auburn, 1852), and " Re- 
view of Pierce's Administration," by Arthur E. Carroll (Boston, 
1856). The steel plate is from a portrait by George P. A. 
Healy. The vignette on page 265 is a view of President Pierce's 
birthplace, and that on page 272 represents his grave, which is 
in the Minot cemetery at Concord, N. H. 

His wife Jane Means Appleton, born in Hampton, N. H., 
12 March, 1806; died in Andover, Mass., 2 Dec, 1863, was a 
daughter of the Rev. Jesse Appleton, D. D., president of 
Bowdoin college. She was brought up 
in an atmosphere of cultivated and re- 
fined Christian influences, was thorough- 
ly educated, and grew to womanhood 
surrounded by most congenial circum- 
stances. She was married in 1834. Pub- 
lic observation was extremely painful 
to her, and she always preferred the 
quiet of her New England home to the 
glare and glitter of fashionable life in 
Washington. A friend said of her: ^ ., ^ ^. -,,^ 
" How well she filled her station as wife, 

mother, daughter, sister, and friend, those only can tell who 
knew her in these private relations. In this quiet sphere she 
found her joy, and here her gentle but powerful influence was 
deeply and constantly felt, through wise counsels and delicate 
suggestions, the purest, finest tastes, and a devoted life.'' She 
was the mother of three children, all boys, but none survived 
19 




276 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



her. Two died in early youth, and the youngest, Benjamin, 
was killed in an accident on the Boston and Maine railroad 
while travelling from Andover to Lawrence, Mass., on 6 Jan., 
1853, only two months before his father's inauguration as 
president. Mr. and Mrs. Pierce were with him at the time, and 
the boy, a bright lad of thirteen years, had been amusing them 
with his conversation just before the accident. The car was 
thrown from the track and dashed against the rocks, and the 
lad met his death instantly. Both parents were long deeply 
affected by the shock of the accident, and Mrs. Pierce never 
recovered from it. The sudden bereavement shattered the 
small remnant of her remaining health, yet she performed her 
task at the White House nobly, and sustained the dignity of 
her husband's office. Mrs. Robert E. Lee wrote in a private 
letter : " I have known many of the ladies of the White House, 
none more truly excellent than the afflicted wife of President 
Pierce. Her health was a bar to any great effort on her part 
to meet the expectations of the public in her high position, 
but she was a refined, extremely religious, and well-educated 
lady." She was buried by the side of her three children, in the 
cemetery at Concord, New Hampshire. 





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D. /v-cple toil & Co. 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 

James Buchanan, fifteenth president of the United States, 
born near Mercersburg, Pa., 23 April, 1791 ; died in Lancaster", 
Pa., I June, 1868. The days of his youth were those of the 
nation's youth ; his public career of forty years saw all our 
great extensions of boundary on the south and west, acquired 
from foreign powers, the admission of thirteen new states, the 
development of many important questions of internal and 
foreign policy, and the gradual rise and final culmination of a 
great and disastrous insurrection. He was educated at a school y 
in Mercersburg and at Dickmson college, Pa., where he was 
graduated in 1809. He began to practise law in Lancaster in 
181 2. His early political principles were those of the feder- 
alists, who disapproved of the war; yet, as he himself said, "he 
thought it was the duty of every patriot to defend the country, 
while the war was raging, against a foreign enemy." His first 
public address was made at the age of twenty-three, on the 
occasion of a popular meeting in Lancaster after the capture 
of Washington by the British in 1814. He urged the enlist- 
ment of volunteers for the defence of Baltimore, and was 
among the first to enroll his name. In October of the same 
year he was elected to the house of representatives in the 
legislature of Pennsylvania for Lancaster county. Peace was 
proclaimed early in 1815, and on 4 July Mr. Buchanan delivered 
an oration before the Washington association of Lancaster. In 
it he spoke of the war as " glorious, in the highest degree, to the 
American character, but disgraceful in the extreme to the ad- 
ministration." The speech excited much criticism, and in later 
life he said that " it contained many sentiments which he re- 
gretted, but that at the same time it could not be denied that 
the country was wholly unprepared for war at the period of its 
declaration, and the attempt to carry it on by means of loans, 



2/8 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

without any resort to taxation, had well nigh made the govern- 
ment bankrupt." He was again elected to the legislature in 
October, 1815, and at the close of that session he retired to the 
practice of his profession, in which he gained early distinction, 
especially in the impeachment of a judge, whom he successfully 
defended. His intention at this time was not to re-enter public 
life, but the death of a young lady to whom he was engaged 
caused him to seek change and distraction of thought, and he 
accepted a nomination to congress, and was elected in 1820 for 
a district composed of the counties of Lancaster, York, and 
Dauphin, taking his seat in December, 1821. He was called a 
federalist, but the party distinctions of that time were not very 
clearly defined, and Mr. Buchanan's political principles, as a 
national statesman, were yet to be formed. Mr. Monroe had 
become president in 1817, and held that ofifice during two terms, 
his administration being called " the era of good feeling." The 
excitement and animosities of the war of 1812 had subsided, 
and when Mr. Buchanan entered congress there was no section- 
alism to disturb the repose of the country. Questions of 
internal policy soon arose, however, and he took an able part 
in many important debates. Mr. Monroe's veto of a bill impos- 
ing tolls for the support of the Cumberland road, for which 
Mr. Buchanan had voted, produced a strong effect upon the 
latter's constitutional views. It was the first time that his 
mind had been brought sharply to the consideration of the 
question in what mode " internal improvements " can be effected 
by the general government, and consequently he began to per- 
ceive the dividing line between the federal and the state pow- 
ers. Mr. Buchanan remained in the house of representatives 
ten years — during Mr. Monroe's second term, through the 
administration of John Quincy Adams, and during the first two 
years of Jackson's administration. In December, 1829, he be- 
came chairman of the judiciary committee of the house, and as 
such introduced a bill to amend and extend the judicial system 
of the United States, by including in the circuit-court system 
six new states, and by increasing the number of judges of the 
supreme court to nine. His speech in explanation of this 
measure — which was not adopted at the time — was as impor- 
tant as any that has been made upon the subject. Another 
measure, evincing a thorough knowledge and very accurate 
views of the nature of our mixed system of government, was a 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 270 

minority report, presented by him as chairman of this com- 
mittee, against a proposition to repeal the 25th section of the 
Judiciary act of 1789, which gave the supreme court appellate 
jurisdiction, by writ of error to the state courts, in cases where 
the constitution, treaties, and laws of the United States are 
drawn in question. This report caused the rejection of the bill 
by a vote of 138 to 51. During Mr. Adams's term the friends 
of the administration began to take the name of national 
republicans, while the opposing party assumed the name of 
democrats. Mr. Buchanan was one of the leaders of the 
opposition in the house of representatives. He was always a 
strong supporter and warm personal friend of Gen. Jackson. 
At the close of the 21st congress in March, 1831, it was 
Buchanan's wish to retire from public life, but, at the request 
of Gen. Jackson (who had become president in 1829), he 
accepted the mission to Russia. He embarked from New York 
in a sailing-vessel on 8 April, 1832, and arrived at St. Peters- 
burg about the middle of June. The chief objects of his mis- 
sion were the negotiation of a commercial treaty that should 
promote an increase of the commerce between Russia and the 
United States by regulating the duties to be levied on the 
merchandise of each country by the other so far as to prevent 
undue discrimination in favor of the products of other coun- 
tries ; to provide for the residence and functions of consuls, 
etc. ; and also the negotiation of a treaty respecting the mari- 
time rights of neutral nations on the principle that " free ships 
make free goods." The Russian minister for foreign affairs at 
this time was Count Nesselrode. He favored the treaty of 
commerce, and, though there was much opposition to it from 
some members of the Russian ministry, it was finally concluded 
on 18 Dec, 1832. The negotiation concerning a treaty on mari- 
time rights was not successful, because, as Mr. Buchanan wrote, 
" Russia is endeavoring to manage England at present, and 
this is an unpropitious moment to urge her to adopt principles 
of public law which would give offence to that nation, and 
which would in any way abridge her own belligerent rights." 
His attractive manners and evident sincerity of character 
produced their effect on the Russians, especially the emperor 
and empress; and he wrote home: "I flatter myself that a 
favorable change has been effected in his [the emperor's] feel- 
ings toward the United States since my arrival " ; and at his 



28o LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

audience of leave the emperor told him to tell Gen. Jackson to 
send him another minister exactly like himself. He wrote to 
President Jackson : " Your foreign policy has had no small 
influence on public opinion throughout Europe." Of Russia 
and the emperor Mr. Buchanan wrote : " There is no freedom 
of the press, no public opinion, and but little political conversa- 
tion, and that very much guarded ; in short, we live in the calm 
of despotism, though the Emperor Nicholas [I.] is one of the 
best of despots. Coming abroad can teach an American no 
other lesson but to love his country, its institutions, and its 
laws better, much better that he did before. I have not yet 
learned to submit patiently to the drudgery of etiquette. 
Foreign ministers must drive a carriage and four with a pos- 
tilion." He left St. Petersburg on 8 Aug., 1833, spent a short 
time in Paris and London, and reached home in November. The 
next year was spent in private occupations in Lancaster, except 
that he was one of the commissioners appointed by Pennsyl- 
vania to arrange with commissioners from New Jersey concern- 
ing the use of the waters of Delaware river. On 6 Dec, 1834, 
the legislature of Pennsylvania elected him to the U. S. senate 
to succeed Mr. Wilkins, who had been appointed minister to 
Russia. This office was acknowledged by Mr. Buchanan after- 
ward to be " the only public station he desired to occupy." He 
took his seat 15 Dec. He held very strongly the doctrine of 
instruction — that is, the right of a state legislature to direct the 
vote of a senator of the state in congress, and the duty of the 
senator to obey. There has never been a period in the history 
of the senate when more real power of debate was displayed, or 
when public measures were more thoroughly considered, than 
at this time. President Jackson's celebrated proclamation 
against nullification, and his removal of the public deposits 
from the bank of the United States into certain selected state 
banks, had been made during Mr. Buchanan's residence abroad. 
Jackson enjoyed great popularity and influence throughout 
the country, but a large majority of the senate were opposed 
to his financial measures. This opposing party, the old "na- 
tional republicans " of John Quincy Adams's administration, 
were now called whigs, and included Mr. Clay, Mr. Webster, 
Mr. Clayton, of Delaware, Mr. Ewing, of Ohio, and Mr. Fre- 
linghuysen and Mr. Southard, of New Jersey. Among the 
Jackson men, or democrats, were Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Wright, of 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 28 1 

New York, Mr. Benton, of Missouri, and Mr. King, of Alabama. 
Mr. Calhoun stood apart from both the political parties, a 
great and powerful debater who had been vice-president, and 
who was now senator from the " nullifying " state of South 
Carolina. One of the first debates in which Mr. Buchanan took 
part in the senate (and one that has not yet lost its interest) 
was upon a bill requiring the president, when making a nomi- 
nation to fill a vacancy occasioned by the removal of any 
officer, to state the fact of such removal and to render reasons 
for it. Mr. Buchanan opposed it. He contended that the 
constitution only made the consent of the senate necessary in 
the appointment of officers by the executive, not in their re- 
moval, that, if such consent were required, long and dangerous 
delays might occur when the senate was not in session ; and 
that, if the president must assign reasons for removals, these 
reasons must be investigated, much time would be consumed, 
and the legislative branch of the government would thus 
exercise functions to which it has no claim. Another great 
discussion into which Mr. Buchanan entered related to the 
refusal of the legislative chambers of France to pay a certain 
sum that had been promised in 1831 by a convention between 
the United States and the government of King Louis Philippe 
for the liquidation of certain claims of American citizens 
against France. The United States waited three years in vain 
for the payment of this money; and finally, in January, 1836, 
the president recommended to congress a partial non-inter- 
course with France. Mr. Buchanan made a long and earnest 
speech, contending against Webster and Clay, in support of 
this measure, insisting that "there is a point in the intercourse 
between nations at which diplomacy must end and a nation 
must either consent to abandon her rights or assert them by 
force." There was some danger for a time of war with France, 
but eventually Great Britain made an offer of mediation and 
the difficulty was amicably adjusted. In January, 1837, Mr. 
Buchanan delivered a speech that may be regarded as his ablest 
effort in the senate. It was in support of Col. Benton's " ex- 
punging " resolution, which proposed to cancel in the journal 
of the senate Mr. Clay's resolution of censure against Presi- 
dent Jackson for his removal of the public deposits from the 
bank of the United States. In this argument Mr. Buchanan 
separated, in a remarkable degree, that which was personal and 



282 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

partisan in the controversy from the serious questions involved. 
He contended that the censure passed by the senate in 1834 
upon the president was unjust, because he had violated no law ; 
and that the senate, in recording such a mere censure, adopted 
in its legislative capacity, had rendered itself incompetent to 
perform its high judicial function of impeachment. He con- 
cluded with a very ingenious and elaborate criticism of the 
word "expunge." The "expunging" resolution was adopted 
by a party vote. 

Toward the end of Jackson's administration the subject 
of slavery began to be pressed upon the attention of con- 
gress by petitions for its abolition in the District of Colum- 
bia. One memorial on this subject was presented by Mr. Buch- 
hanan himself from some Quakers in his own state. Mr. Cal- 
houn and others objected to the reception of these petitions. 
Mr. Buchanan, though he disapproved of slavery, yet contended 
that congress had no power under the constitution to interfere 
with slavery within those states where it existed, and that it 
would be very unwise to abolish it in the District of Columbia 
— " a district carved out of two slave-holding states and sur- 
rounded by them on all sides " ; but, nevertheless, he also con- 
tended, in a long and forcible speech, for the people's right of 
petition and the duty of congress, save under exceptional 
circumstances, to receive their petitions. In June, 1836, Mr. 
Buchanan argued, against Mr. Webster, for a bill, introduced 
in conformity with a special recommendation from President 
Jackson, prohibiting the circulation through the mails of 
incendiary publications on the subject of slavery. In a very 
sarcastic speech against a bill to prevent the interference of 
certain federal officers with elections, even in conversation, Mr. 
Buchanan thus expressed his political faith : " I support the 
president because he is in favor of a strict and limited construc- 
tion of the constitution, according to the true spirit of the 
Virginia and Kentucky resolutions. I firmly believe that if 
this government is to remain powerful and permanent it can 
only be by never assuming doubtful powers which must neces- 
sarily bring it into collision with the states. I oppose the whig 
party, because, according to their reading of the constitution, 
congress possesses, and they think ought to exercise, powers 
which would endanger the rights of the states and the liberties 
of the people." The most important and far-reaching of Presi- 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 283 

dent Jackson's executive measures was his veto in 1832 of a 
bill for renewing the charter of the bank of the United States. 
Jackson removed the national deposits into certani state banks, 
which produced financial distress throughout the land. Mr. 
Buchanan was conspicuous in the senate as a supporter of 
Jackson's financial policy throughout his administration and 
that of his successor, Mr. Van Buren, of the same party. 
Mr. Buchanan had been re-elected to the senate in January, 
1837, by a very large vote and for a full term, his first 
election having been to a vacancy, and he was the first person 
that had ever received a second election from the legisla- 
ture of Pennsylvania. In 1839 Mr. Van Buren offered Mr. 
Buchanan the attorney-generalship, which Mr. Grundy had 
resigned. Mr. Buchanan answered that he " preferred his po- 
sition as a senator from Pennsylvania; that nothing could 
induce him to waive this preference except a sense of public 
duty, and that he felt that he could render a more efficient sup- 
port to the principles " of the administration " on the floor 
of the senate than he could in an executive office." The great 
commercial distress of the country produced, in the elections of 
1840, a political revolution, and on 4 March, 1841, the whigs 
came into power under President Harrison. His death in 
April placed in the executive chair Mr. Tyler, who proved to 
be opposed to a national bank, and vetoed two bills : the first 
for a national bank, and the second for a " Fiscal Corporation 
of the United States." Mr. Clay made frequent attacks upon 
Mr. Tyler's vetoes, and even proposed a joint resolution for an 
amendment of the constitution requiring but a bare majority, 
instead of two thirds, of each house of congress to pass a bill 
over the president's objections. Mr. Buchanan, on 2 Feb., 1842, 
replied to Mr. Clay in a speech that may be ranked very high 
as an exposition of one of the most important parts of our po- 
litical system. He showed that the president's veto was the 
people's safeguard, through the officer who "more nearly 
represents a majority of the whole people than any other 
branch of the government," against the encroachments of the 
senate. The veto power "owes its existence," said he, "to a 
revolt of the people of Rome against the tyrannical decrees of 
the Roman senate. The president of the United States, elected 
by his fellow-citizens to the highest official trust in the country, 
is directly responsible to them for the manner in which he 



284 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

shall discharge his duties ; and he will not array himself, by the 
exercise of the vet.o power, against a majority in both houses 
of congress, unless in extreme cases, where, from strong con- 
victions of public duty, he may be willing to draw down upon 
himself their hostility." Mr. Buchanan was one of those that 
opposed the ratification of the treaty with England negotiated 
by Mr. Webster and Lord Ashburton in 1842. In 1843 he was 
elected to the senate for a third term, and in 1844 his name 
was brought forward as the democratic candidate of Pennsyl- 
vania for the presidential nomination ; but before the national 
convention met he withdrew in order that the whole strength 
of the party might be concentrated upon one candidate. James 
K. Polk was elected ; he asked Mr. Buchanan to become his 
secretary of state, and the invitation was accepted. 

In this responsible position Mr. Buchanan had two very 
important questions to deal with, and they required the exer- 
cise of all his political tact and indefatigable industry. One 
was the settlement of the boundary between the territory of 
Oregon and the British possessions. The other was the an- 
nexation of Texas, which resulted in the Mexican war. Texas 
had been for nine years independent of Mexico, and now 
sought admission into our union. The difficulties that at- 
tended this question were, on the one hand, the danger of in- 
creasing the excitement, already considerable, against slavery 
(for Texas would be a slave-holding state) ; and, on the other, 
the danger of interference on the part of England if Texas 
should remain independent and resume her war with Mexico. 
The adoption by Texas of the basis of annexation proposed 
by the United States was followed by the refusal of the Mexi- 
can government to receive Mr. Slidell, sent by Mr. Polk as 
envoy extraordinary, with the object of avoiding a war and to 
settle all questions between the two countries, including the 
western boundary of Texas. The result of the Mexican war 
was the cession to the United States of California and New 
Mexico and the final settlement of the Texan boundary. The 
policy of Mr. Polk's administration toward the states of Cen- 
tral America and on the subject of the Monroe doctrine was 
shaped by Mr. Buchanan very differently from that adopted by 
the succeeding administration of Gen. Taylor, whose secretary 
of state was Mr. Clayton, the American negotiator of the Clay- 
ton-Bulwer treaty with Great Britain. Acting under Mr. 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 285 

Buchanan's advice, President Polk, in his first annual message, 
in December, 1845, reasserted the Monroe doctrine that no 
European nation should henceforth be allowed by the United 
States to plant any colony on the American continent or to 
interfere in any way in American affairs. This declaration was 
intended to frustrate the attempts of England to obtain a foot- 
ing in the then Mexican province of California by an exten- 
sive system of colonization. England's aims were defeated for 
the time. Two years afterward, when the Mexican war was 
drawing to a close, Mr. Buchanan turned the attention of 
President Polk to the encroachments of the British government 
in Central America, under the operation of a protectorate over 
the kingdom of the Mosquito Indians. Great disturbances fol- 
lowed in Yucatan, and the Indians began a war of extermina- 
tion against the whites. If not actually incited by the British 
authorities, the savages were known to be supplied with British 
muskets. The whites were reduced to such extremities that 
the authorities of Yucatan offered to transfer the dommionand 
sovereignty of the peninsula to the United States, as a consid- 
eration for defending it against the Indians, at the same time 
giving notice that if this offer should be declined they would 
make the same proposition to England and Spain. The presi- 
dent recommended to congress the appeal of Yucatan, but de- 
clined to recommend the adoption of any measure with a view 
to acquire the dominion and sovereignty over the peninsula. 
In April, 1847, the United States appointed a charge d'affaires 
to Guatemala, and Mr. Buchanan instructed him to "promote, 
by his counsel and advice, should suitable occasions offer, the 
reunion of the states that formed the federation of Central 
America ; to cultivate the most friendly relations with Guate- 
mala and the other states of Central America ; and to commu- 
nicate to the state department all the information obtainable 
concerning the British encroachments upon the Mosquito king- 
dom." The new charge was prevented from reaching Guate- 
mala until late in Mr. Polk's administration, and the plan wisely 
conceived by Mr. Buchanan was not carried out. In the mean 
time the British government seized upon the port of San Juan 
de Nicaragua, the only good harbor along the coast. Instead 
of carrying out the policy of President Polk and Mr. Buchanan, 
the administration of President Taylor, without consulting the 
states of Central America, entered in 1850 into the Clayton- 



.286 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

Bulwer treaty, the ambiguous language of which soon gave rise 
to such complications and misunderstandings between England 
and the United States that Mr. Buchanan was obliged to go, 
subsequently, as minister to London, to endeavor to unravel 
them. Instead of a simple provision requiring Great Britain 
absolutely to recede from the Mosquito protectorate, and to 
restore to Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica their respec- 
tive territories, the treaty declared that neither of the parties 
should "make use of any protection which either affords or 
may afford, or any alliance which either has or may have, to or 
with any state or people, for the purpose of erecting or main- 
taining any fortifications, or of occupying, fortifying, or colo- 
nizing any part of Central America, or of assuming or exercis- 
ing any dominion over the same." It soon became the British 
construction of this clause that it recognized the existence of 
the Mosquito protectorate for all purposes other than those 
expressly prohibited ; and down to the time when Mr. Buch- 
anan was sent by President Pierce as minister to England this 
claim was still maintained. 

On the accession of the whig party to power under Taylor, 
in March, 1849, Mr. Buchanan retired for a time from official 
life. His home, from the age of eighteen, had been the city of 
Lancaster, where he owned a house. In the autumn of 1848 he 
purchased a small estate of twenty-two acres, known as Wheat- 
land, about a mile from the town. The house was a substan- 
tial brick mansion, and, on Mr. Buchanan's retirement from 
the cabinet, this became his permanent abode when he was not 
occupying an ofificial residence in London or in Washington. 
Mr. Buchanan never married. The death of the lady whom he 
had intended to marry was a deep and lasting sorrow. The 
loss of his sister, Mrs. Lane, in 1839, and of her husband two 
years later, gave him the care of their four children ; and the 
youngest of these, afterward widely known as Miss Harriet 
Lane, became an inmate of his household. James Buchanan 
Henry, the son of another sister, who died about the same time, 
was also taken into his family ; and these two cousins were 
brought up by their uncle with the most wise and affectionate 
care. Mr. Buchanan's letters to his niece, begun when she was 
a school-girl, and, after Miss Lane had grown up, written al- 
most daily during her absences from him, give a charming pic- 
ture of his private life. During the few years of Mr. Buchanan's 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 



287 




unofificial life, passed chiefly at Wlieatland, he does not appear 
to have devoted much time to the law. His correspondence 
was large ; and this, with a constant and lively interest in pub- 
lic affairs, rendered him, even in retirement, very busy. He 
lent considerable influence to his party as a private individual ; 
but his exertions were not marked by purely partisan feel- 
ing. He strenuously 
opposed the Wilmot 
proviso, which aimed 
at excluding slavery 
from all newly ac- 
quired territory; and 
favored Mr. Clay's 
" Compromise Meas- 
ures of 1850," which 
provided for the ad- 
mission of California 
as a free state, and the abolition of the slave-trade in the 
District of Columbia ; but, by the fugitive slave law, secured 
the return to their owners of slaves that had escaped into 
free states. He wrote many influential public letters, in one 
of which he declared that " two things are necessary to pre- 
serve the union from danger : i. Agitation in the north on 
the subject of southern slavery must be rebuked and put 
down by a strong and enlightened public opinion ; 2. The 
fugitive slave law must be enforced in its spirit." In the 
presidential election of 1852 Mr. Buchanan was a candidate 
for the democratic nomination ; but Gen. Franklin Pierce re- 
ceived the nomination and was elected. The most impor- 
tant service rendered by Mr. Buchanan to his party in this 
election — and with him a service to his party was alike a serv- 
ice to his country — was a speech made at Greensburgh, Pa., 
in October, 1852, in opposition to the election of Gen. Scott, 
the whig candidate. This speech exhibited in a very clear light 
the whole political history of that period, and asserted a princi- 
ple which he said ought to be an article of democratic faith : 
"Beware of elevating to the highest civil trust the commander 
of your victorious armies," drawing a distinction between one 
"who had been a man of war, and nothing but a man of war 
from his youth upward," and such as had been " soldiers only 
in the day and hour of danger, when the country had demanded 



288 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

their services, and who had already illustrated high civil ap- 
pointments " ; and then criticising exhaustively each of Gen. 
Scott's avowed political opinions, and quoting Mr. Thurlow 
Weed, " one of Gen. Scott's most able supporters," as acknowl- 
edging that " there was weakness in all Scott said or did 
about the presidency." When, in 1853, Franklin Pierce be- 
came president, he appointed Mr. Buchanan minister to Eng- 
land. Buchanan, though social in his nature, was a man of 
simple republican tastes, and the formality and etiquette of life 
at a foreign court, never agreeable, now, at the age of sixty- 
two, appeared to him particularly distasteful ; besides, he con- 
sidered that his duty to his young relatives as well as to his 
only surviving brother, a clergyman in delicate health, required 
his presence at home. But with Mr. Buchanan duty to his 
country always outweighed every other consideration, and Mr. 
Pierce's urgent appeal to him to accept what was at that time 
a very important mission, at length prevailed. Mr. Buchanan 
sailed for England from New York on 5 Aug., 1853, and landed in 
Liverpool on the 17th. There were three important questions 
to be settled with England at this time : the first related to the 
fisheries ; the second was the desire of England to establish 
reciprocal free trade in certain enumerated articles between the 
United States and the British North American provinces, and 
thus preserve their allegiance and ward off the danger of their 
annexation to the United States ; and this Mr. Buchanan was 
very desirous to use as a powerful lever to secure the third 
point, which the United States earnestly desired, viz., the with- 
drawal of all British dominion in Central America, and the rec- 
ognition of the Monroe doctrine, which the Clayton-Bulwer 
treaty had not firmly established. President Pierce considered 
it best that the reciprocity and fishery questions should be set- 
tled at Washington ; but Mr. Buchanan was intrusted with the 
negotiation of the Central American question in London. Mr. 
Buchanan's main object was to develop and ascertain the pre- 
cise differences between the two governments in regard to the 
construction of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, but the Crimean war 
so long delayed the negotiations with this country that nothing 
could be accomplished while he remained in England. As 
the war approached and when it was finally declared, the 
principles of neutrality, privateering, and many other topics 
came within the range of the discussion ; and it was very much 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 289 

in consequence of the views expressed by Mr. Buchanan to 
Lord Clarendon, and by the latter communicated to the Brit- 
ish cabinet, that the course of England toward neutrals during 
that war became what it was. When Lord Clarendon, in 1854, 
presented to Mr. Buchanan a projet for a treaty between Great 
Britain, France, and the United States, making it piracy for 
neutrals to serve on board of privateers cruising against the 
commerce of either of the three nations when such nation was 
a belligerent, the very impressive reasons that Mr. Buchanan 
opposed to it caused it to be abandoned. An American minis- 
ter at the English court, at periods of exciting and critical ques- 
tions between the two nations, is very likely to experience a con- 
siderable variation in the social barometer. But the strength of 
Mr. Buchanan's character, and the agreeable personal qualities 
which were in him united with the gravity of years and an ex- 
perience of a very uncommon kind, overcame at all times any 
tendency to social unpleasantness that might have been caused 
by national feelings excited by temporary causes. Throughout 
his residence in England Mr. Buchanan was treated with marked 
attention, not only by society in general, but by the queen 
and the prince consort. Miss Lane joined him in the spring 
of 1854, and remained with him until the autumn of 1855. 

Mr. Buchanan arrived in New York in April, 1856, and 
there met with a public reception from the authorities and 
people of the city, that evinced the interest that now began to 
be everywhere manifested in him as the probable future presi- 
dent. Prior to the meeting of the national democratic conven- 
tion at Cincinnati in June, 1856, there was lack of organization 
on the part of Mr. Buchanan's political friends; and Mr. Buch- 
anan himself, though willing to accept the nomination, made 
no efforts to secure it, and did not believe that he would re- 
ceive it. The rival claimants were President Pierce and Sena- 
tor Douglas, of Illinois. Chiefly through the efforts of Mr. 
Slidell, Mr. Buchanan was nominated. By this time the whig 
party had disappeared, the old party lines were obliterated, 
and the main political issue had come to be the question of 
slavery or no slavery in the territories. The anti-slavery party 
now called themselves republicans, and their candidate was 
Gen. Fremont. The result of the election shows, with great 
distinctness, the following facts: i. That Mr. Buchanan was 
chosen president because he received the electoral votes of the 



290 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



five free states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Indiana, Illinois, 
and California (sixty-two in all), and that without them he 
could not have been elected. 2. That his southern vote (that 
of every slave-holding state excepting Maryland) was partly 
given to him because of his conservative opinions and position, 
and partly because the candidate for the vice-presidency, Mr. 
Breckinridge, was a southern man. 3. That Gen. Fremont 
received the electoral vote of no southern state, and that this 
was due partly to the character of the republican party, and 
partly to the fact that the republican candidate for the vice- 
presidency, Mr. Dayton, of New Jersey, was a citizen of a non- 
slave-holding state. Gen. Fremont himself was nominally a 
citizen of California. This election, therefore, foreshadowed 
the sectional division that would be almost certain to happen 
in the next one if the four years of Mr. Buchanan's administra- 
tion should not witness a subsidence in the sectional feelings 
between the north and the south. It would only be necessary 
for the republicans to wrest from the democratic party the 
five free states that had voted for Mr. Buchanan, and they 
would elect the president in i860. Whether this was to hap- 
pen would depend upon the ability of the democratic party to 
avoid a rupture into factions that would themselves be repre- 
sentatives of irreconcilable dogmas on the subject of slavery 
in the territories. Hence it is that Mr. Buchanan's course as 
president, for the first three years of his term, is to be judged 
with reference to the responsibility that was upon him so to 
conduct the government as to disarm, if possible, the antago- 
nism of section to section. His administration of affairs after 
the election of Mr. Lincoln is to be judged simply by his duty 
as the executive in the most extraordinary and anomalous 
crisis in which the country had ever been placed. 

Mr. Buchanan was inaugurated on 4 March, 1857. The 
cabinet, which was confirmed by the senate on 6 March, con- 
sisted of Lewis Cass, of Michigan, secretary of state: Howell 
Cobb, of Georgia, secretary of the treasury ; John B. Floyd, of 
Virginia, secretary of war; Isaac Toucey, of Connecticut, sec- 
retary of the navy ; Aaron V. Brown, of Tennessee, postmaster- 
general ; Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi, secretary of the in- 
terior ; and Jeremiah S. Black, of Pennsylvania, attorney-gen- 
eral. The internal affairs of the country during Buchanan's 
administration occupied so much of the public attention at the 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 2QI 

time, and have since been a subject of so much interest, that 
his management of our foreign relations has been quite ob- 
scured. The wisdom displayed in this branch of his duties was 
such as might have been expected from one who had had his 
previous experience in the state department and in important 
diplomatic posts. His only equals in the executive office in this 
respect have been Mr. Jefferson and Mr. John Quincy Adams. 
During an administration fraught with the most serious hazards 
to the internal relations of the states with each other, he kept 
steadily in view the preservation of peace and good will be- 
tween the United States and Great Britain, while he abated 
nothing from our just claims or our national dignity. He 
left to his successor no unsettled question between these two 
nations that was of any immediate importance, and he also 
left the feeling between them and their respective governments 
in a far better condition than he found it on his accession to 
the presidency. The long-standing and dangerous question of 
British dominion in Central America, in the hope of settling 
which Mr. Buchanan had accepted the mission to England, was 
still pending, but it was at length amicably and honorably 
settled, under his advice and approbation after he became 
president, by treaties between Great Britain and the two Cen- 
tral American states, in accordance with the American con- 
struction of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. Another subject of 
contention that had long existed between the two countries 
was removed by President Buchanan in a summary and dig- 
nified way. The belligerent right of search had been exer- ^ 
cised by Great Britain in the maritime war of 1812. In pro- 
cess of time she undertook to assert a right to detain and 
search, on the high seas, in time of peace, merchantmen sus- 
pected of being engaged in the slave-trade. In 1858 she de- 
spatched some cruisers with such orders to the coast of Cuba 
and the Gulf of Mexico. President Buchanan, always vigilant 
in protecting the commerce of the country, but mindful of the 
importance of preventing any necessity for war, remonstrated 
to the English government against this violation of the free- 
dom of the seas. Then he sent a large naval force to the 
neighborhood of Cuba with instructions " to protect all vessels 
of the United States on the high seas from search or detention 
by the vessels of war of any other nation." The effect was ^ 
most salutary. The British government receded, abandoned 



292 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



the claim of the right of search, and recognized the principle 
of international law in favor of the freedom of the seas. Dur- 
ing the whole of Mr. Buchanan's administration our relations 
with Mexico were in a complicated and critical position, in con- 
sequence of the internal condition of that country and of the 
danger of interference by European powers. Great outrages 
were committed in Mexico upon our citizens and their property, 
and their claims against that government exceeded $10,000,000. 
Mr. Buchanan recommended to congress to send assistance 
to the constitutional government in Mexico, which had been 
forcibly superseded by military rule, but which still held the 
allegiance of the majority of the people, and to enforce redress 
for the wrongs of our citizens. He saw very clearly that, un- 
less active measures should be taken by the government of the 
United States to reach a power with which a settlement of all 
claims and difificulties could be effected, some other nation 
would undertake to establish a government in Mexico, and the 
United States would then have to interfere, not only to secure 
the rights of their citizens, but to assert the principle of the 
Monroe doctrine. He also instructed the Mexican minister, Mr. 
McLane, to make a " Treaty of Transit and Commerce " and a 
"convention to enforce treaty stipulations, and to maintain or- 
der and security in the territory of the republics of Mexico and 
the United States." But congress took no notice of the presi- 
dent's recommendation, and refused to ratify the treaty and the 
convention. Mexico was left to the interference of Louis Napo- 
leon ; the establishment of an empire, under Maximilian, fol- 
lowed,' for the erhbarrassment of President Lincoln's adminis- 
tration while we were in the throes of our civil war, and the 
claims of American citizens were to all appearance indefinitely 
postponed. Our relations with Spain were also in a very un- 
satisfactory condition at the beginning of Mr. Buchanan's term. 
There were many just claims of our citizens against the Span- 
ish government for injuries received in Cuba, and Mr. Buchan- 
an succeeded in having a " convention concluded at Madrid in 
i860, establishing a joint commission for the final adjudication 
and payment of all the claims of the respective parties." The 
senate refused to ratify this convention also, probably because 
of the intense excitement against slavery, the convention hav- 
ing authorized the presenting before the commissioners of a 
Spanish claim against the United States for the value of certain 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 293 

slaves. In the settlement of claims against the government of 
Paraguay the president's firm policy was seconded by congress, 
and he was authorized to send a commissioner to that country 
accompanied by " a naval force sufficient to exact justice should 
negotiation fail." This was entirely successful ; full indemnifi- 
cation was obtained without any resort to arms. Mr. Buchanan's 
negotiations with China, conducted through William B. Reed as 
minister, were also successful ; a treaty was concluded in 1858, 
which established very satisfactory commercial relations with 
that country and secured the liquidation of all claims. June v^ 

22, i860, Mr. Buchanan vetoed a bill " to secure homesteads to 
actual settlers in the public domain, and for other purposes." 
The other purposes contemplated donations to the states. The 
ground of the veto was that the power "to dispose of " the 
territory of the United States did not authorize congress to 
donate public lands to the states for their domestic purposes. 
In the senate the bill failed to receive the two thirds majority 
necessary to pass it over the veto. In internal affairs the pre- 
ceding administration of President Pierce had left a legacy of 
trouble to his successor in the repeal of the Missouri compro- 
mise, which was followed by a terrible period of lawlessness and 
bloodshed in Kansas, under what was called " squatter sover- 
eignty," the slavery and the anti-slavery parties among the 
settlers struggling for supremacy. The pro-slavery party sus- 
tained the territorial government and obtained control of its 
legislature. The anti-slavery party repudiated this legislature 
and held a convention at Topeka to institute an opposition 
government. Congress had recognized the authority of the 
territorial government, and Mr. Buchanan, as president, had 
no alternative but to recognize and uphold it also. The fact 
that the legislature of that government was in the hands of the 
pro-slavery party made the course he adopted seem as if he 
favored their pro-slavery designs, while, in truth, he had no 
object to subserve but to sustain, as he was officially obliged 
to sustain, the government that congress had recognized as the 
lawful government of the territory. Now, throughout the 
north, the press and the pulpit began to teem with denuncia- 
tions of the new president, who had not allowed revolutionary 
violence to prevail over the law of the land, and this was kept 
up throughout his administration. The anti-slavery party 
gained ground, and the election of i860 resulted in the tri- 



294 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



umph of Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Buchanan was a conservative and 
far-seeing man, who, though opposed to slavery, believed that 
the blind and fanatical interference of the northern abolitionists 
in the domestic affairs of the southern states would excite the 
latter in a manner dangerous to the peace and prosperity of 
the union. His messages constantly recommended conciliatory 
legislative measures; but congress paid no attention to his ad- 
vice. Finally the election of Mr. Lincoln was seized upon as 
the signal in South Carolina for the breaking out of her old 
doctrine of secession. She passed her ordinance of secession 
on 20 Dec, i860. Mr. Buchanan never for a moment admitted 
that a state had any power to secede from the union. South 
Carolina had once and forever adopted and ratified the consti- 
tution of the United States, and he maintained that she had by 
this act permanently resigned certain powers to the federal gov- 
ernment, and that she could not, by her own will and without the 
consent of the other states, resume those powers and declare her- 
self independent. She could, if actually oppressed by the gen- 
eral government, seek to redress her wrongs by revolution; but 
never by secession. He refused to receive, in their assumed 
official capacity, the commissioners sent by South Carolina, in 
December, i860, to treat with him as with a foreign power. In 
October, i860, before the election, Mr. Buchanan received 
from Gen. Scott, the general-in-chief of the army, a communi- 
cation saying that, in the event of Mr. Lincoln's election, Gen. 
Scott anticipated that there would be a secession of one or 
more of the southern states ; and that, from the general rash- 
ness of the southern character, there was danger of a "prelim- 
inary " seizure of certain southern forts. This paper became 
known as " General Scott's Views." It was the foundation, at 
a later period, of a charge that President Buchanan had been 
warned by Gen. Scott of the danger of leaving the southern 
forts without sufficient garrisons to prevent surprises, and that 
he had neglected this warning. Mr. Buchanan, who had pub- 
licly denied the right of secession, could not furnish the southern 
states with any justification of such a proceeding by prematurely 
re-enforcing the forts as if he anticipated secession. But, even 
if the president had wished to adopt such a measure, there 
were, as Gen. Scott himself said, but five companies of regular 
troops, or 400 men, available for the garrisoning of nine forti- 
fications in six highly excited southern states. The remain- 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 295 

der of the army was scattered over the western plains. Scott's 
views were clearly impracticable, and produced no impression 
upon the president's mind. 

Mr. Buchanan has been often and severely reproached for 
a "temporizing policy" and a want of such vigor as might 
have averted the civil war; but the policy of Mr. Lincoln's 
administration, until after the attack on Fort Sumter, was 
identical with that of Mr. Buchanan. In his annual message 
of 5 Dec, i860, Mr. Buchanan stated clearly and forcibly his 
denial of the right of secession, and also his conviction that if 
a state should adopt such an unconstitutional measure the 
federal government had no power, under the constitution, to 
make aggressive war upon her to compel her to remain in the 
union ; but at the same time drawing a definite distinction be- 
tween this and the right of the use of force against individuals, 
in spite of secession, in enforcing the execution of federal laws 
and in the preservation of federal property. This doctrine met 
the secessionists upon their own ground ; for it denied that a 
state ordinance of secession could absolve its people from 
obeying the laws of the United States. Mr. Buchanan thus 
framed the only justifiable basis of a civil war, and left upon 
the records of the country the clear line of demarcation that 
would have to be observed by his successor and would make 
the use of force, if force must be used, a war, not of aggression, 
but of defence. In order to disarm all unreasonable opposi- 
tion from the south, Mr. Buchanan urged upon congress the 
adoption of an " explanatory amendment " of the constitution, 
which should effectually secure to slave-holders all their con- 
stitutional rights. From all parts of the country, north and 
south, he received private letters approving, on various 
grounds, the tone of the message; but nearly the whole of the 
republican party saw fit to treat it as a denial by the president 
of any power to enforce the laws against the citizens of a state 
after secession, and even after actual rebellion ; while this very 
power, emphatically stated as it was in the message, was made 
by the secessionists their ground of attack. It was the great 
misfortune of Mr. Buchanan's position that he had to appeal 
to a congress in which there were two sectional parties breath- 
ing mutual defiance ; in which broad and patriotic statesman- 
ship was confined to a small body of men, who could not win 
over to their views a sufficient number from either of the 



296 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



parties to make up a majority upon any proposition whatever. 
In the hope of preventing the secession of South Carolina, the 
president sent Caleb Cushing to Charleston, with a letter to 
Gov. Pickens, urging the people of the state to await the ac- 
tion of congress. 

After the actual secession of South Carolina, Mr. Buch- 
anan's two great objects were: i. To confine the area of se- 
cession, so that if there was to be a southern confederacy it 
might comprehend only the cotton states, which were most 
likely to act together. 2. To induce congress to prepare for 
a civil war in case one should be precipitated. While he made 
it apparent to congress that at that time he was without the 
necessary executive powers to enforce the collection of the 
revenue in South Carolina, he did not fail to call for the ap- 
propriate powers and means. But at no time during that ses- 
sion did a single republican senator (and the republicans had a 
majority in the senate), in any form whatever, give his vote or 
his influence for any measure that would strengthen the hands 
of the president either in maintaining peace or in executing the 
laws of the United States. Whatever was the governing mo- 
tive for their inaction, it never can be said that they were not 
seasonably warned by the president that a policy of inaction 
would be fatal. That policy not only crippled him, but crip- 
pled his successor. When Mr. Lincoln came into office, seven 
states had already seceded, and not a single law had been put 
upon the statute-book that would enable the executive to 
meet such a condition of the union. Mr. Crittenden, of Ken- 
tucky, had introduced into the senate a resolution, which be- 
came known as the "Crittenden Compromise," providing in 
substance for a restoration of the Missouri compromise-line of 
36° 30' ; and it was proposed that this question should be re- 
ferred to a direct vote of the people in the several states. On 
8 Jan., 1861, Mr. Buchanan sent a special message to congress, 
strongly recommending the adoption of this measure; but it 
produced no effect. During the last three months of his term 
there were several changes m his cabinet. Mr. Cobb resigned 
his portfolio on 8 Dec, i860, and Mr. Thomas, who succeeded 
him as secretary of the treasury, also resigned on 11 Jan., 
their sympathies being with the secessionists. This depart- 
ment was then taken by Gen. John A. Dix. Mr. Thompson, 
secretary of the interior, resigned on 8 Jan., also because he 



s 






1 



T ^ 






. ^^ 



I \ 






^ 



J 



>,H 



^ J 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 297 

was a southern man, and the duties of this ofifice were subse- 
quently performed by Moses Kelly, chief clerk. Gen. Cass 
and Gov. Floyd resigned their offices in December; Judge 
Black was transferred from the attorney-generalship to the 
state department, and Edwin M. Stanton became attorney- 
general. Joseph Holt succeeded Secretary Floyd in the war 
department. 

The two critical questions which it was important that 
the president should correctly and consistently decide were, 
whether he was to receive in their assumed official character 
any commissioners sent by the southern states as to a foreign 
power, and whether re-enforcements should be sent to Maj. 
Anderson at Fort Sumter, or to any other southern fort. Mr. 
Buchanan always refused to receive both the South Carolina 
commissioners and also Mr. Crawford, the first of the commis- 
sioners from the confederate government at Montgomery, who 
arrived in Washington just before the close of his term; he 
thus left the new president entirely free to act as he saw best, 
and entirely untrammelled by any previous pledges. As to re- 
enforcements for southern forts, Maj. Anderson was instructed 
to report to the government any necessity for assistance, and 
in the mean time an expedition was fitted out at New York and 
held in readiness to sail at an hour's notice. Until the close of 
Mr. Buchanan's administration, Maj. Anderson considered him- 
self sufficiently strong, and agreed with the president that any 
unnecessary movement of troops would be regarded by the 
south as a menace and would provoke hostilities. Mr. Buch- 
anan would not initiate a civil war; his policy was entirely 
defensivd ; and yet he did all that he could, constitutionally, to 
avert a war. It has often been asked, Why did Mr. Buchanan 
suffer state after state to go out of the union ? Why did he 
not call on the north for volunteers, and put down rebel- 
lion in its first stage ? The president had no power to call for 
volunteers under any existing law; congress, during the whole 
winter, refused to pass any law to provide him with men or 
money. In the application of all the means that he had for 
protecting the public property, he omitted no step that could 
have been taken with safety, and, at the inauguration of Mr. 
Lincoln, Maj. Anderson not only held Fort Sumter, but had 
held it down to that time in perfect confidence that he could 
maintain his position. 



298 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

On 9 March, 1861, Mr. Buchanan returned to his home at 
Wheatland, a view of which appears on page 287, rejoicing to 
be free from the cares of a long and responsible public life, and 
welcomed by an immense gathering of his neighbors and the 
citizens of Lancaster. Here he lived quietly for the remaining 
seven years of his life, taking, however, a lively interest in pub- 
lic affairs, and always supporting, with his influence as a pri- 
vate citizen, the maintenance of the war for the restoration of 
the union. His health was generally good throughout his 
whole life. After his final return to Wheatland he began to be 
attacked occasionally by rheumatic gout, and this malady at 
last terminated his life in his seventy-eighth year. His remains 
were interred in a cemetery near Lancaster. No man was ever 
treated with greater injustice than he was during the last seven 
years of his life by a large part of the public. Men said he 
was a secessionist; he was a traitor; he had given away the 
authority of the government; he had been weak and vacillat- 
ing; he had shut his eyes when men about him, the very minis- 
ters of his cabinet, were plotting the destruction of the union ; 
he was old and timid ; he might have crushed an incipient re- 
bellion, and he had encouraged it. But he bore all this with 
patience and dignity, forbearing to say anything against the 
new administration, and confident that posterity would ac- 
knowledge that he had done his duty. In 1862 he was at- 
tacked by Gen. Scott, who made several statements concerning 
the president's management of the Fort Sumter affairs during 
the last winter of his administration, which Mr. Buchanan suc- 
cessfully refuted. Mr. Buchanan's loyalty to the constitution 
of the United States was unbounded. He was not a man of 
brilliant genius, nor did he ever do any one thing to make his 
name illustrious and immortal, as Webster did when he de- 
fended the constitution against the heresy of nullification. But 
in the course of a long, useful, and consistent life, filled with 
the exercise of talents of a fine order and uniform ability, he 
had made the constitution of his country the object of his deep- 
est affection, the constant guide of all his public acts. He pub- 
lished a vindication of the policy of his administration during 
the last months of his term, " Buchanan's Administration " 
(New York, 1866). See "Life of President Buchanan," by 
George Ticknor Curtis (2 vols.. New York, 1883). 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 



299 



Harriet Lane Johnston was born in Mercersburg, Pa., 
in 1833. She is the daughter of Elliott T. Lane and his wife, 
June Buchanan, who, dying, left her to the care of her uncle, 
James Buchanan. She was educated 
at the Roman Catholic convent in 
Georgetown, D. C, and, on the appoint- 
ment of Mr. Buchanan to the English 
mission in 1853, accompanied him to 
London, where she dispensed the hos- 
pitalities of the embassy. During his 
term as chief magistrate she was mis- 
tress of the White House, over which 
she presided with grace and dignity, <^^ n f4^ 
receiving, among other distinguished ' ' ' 

guests, the Prince of Wales and his 
party. In 1866 she married Henry Elliott Johnston, of Mary- 
land, and since that event has resided in Baltimore, Washington, 
and at Wheatland, surviving her husband and their two sons. 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the United 
States, born in Hardin county, Ky., 12 Feb., 1809; died in 
Washington, D. C, 15 April, 1865. His earliest ancestor in 
America seems to have been Samuel Lincoln, of Norwich, Eng- 
land, who settled in Hingham, Mass., where he died, leaving a 
son, Mordecai, whose son of the same name removed to Mon- 
mouth, N. J., and thence to Berks county. Pa., dying there in 
1735. He was a man of some property, which at his death was 
divided among his sons and daughters, one of whom, John Lin- 
coln, having disposed of his land in Pennsylvania and New- 
Jersey, established himself in Rockingham county, Va. The 
records of that county show that he was possessed of a valu- 
able estate, which was divided among five sons, one of whom, 
named Abraham, emigrated to Kentucky about 1780. At this 
time Daniel Boone was engaged in those labors and exploits in 
the new country of Kentucky that have rendered his name illus- 
trious ; and there is no doubt that Abraham Lincoln was in- 
duced by his friendship for Boone to give up what seems to 
have been an assured social position in Virginia and take his 
family to share with him the risks and hardships of life in the 
new territory. The families of Boone and Lincoln had been 
closely allied for many years. Several marriages had taken 
place between them, and their names occur in each other's wills 
as friends and executors. The pioneer Lincoln, who took with 
him what for the time and place was a sufficient provision in 
money, the result of the sale of his property in Virginia, ac- 
quired by means of cash and land-warrants a large estate in 
Kentucky, as is shown by the records of Jefferson and Camp- 
bell counties. About 1784 he was killed by Indians while work- 
ing with his three sons — Mordecai, Josiah, and Thomas — in 
clearing the forest. His widow removed after his death to 




Jjij' m A B Holi !'•■•' 



n^^. 0^*-^^ --^ r'U--^ 



D.Appletoa & Co 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



301 



Washington county, and there brought up her family. The two 
elder sons became reputable citizens, and the two daughters 
married in a decent condition of life. Thomas, the youngest 
son, seems to have been below the average of the family in en- 
terprise and other qualities that command success. He learned 
the trade of a carpenter, and married, 12 June, 1806, Nancy 
Hanks, a niece of the man with whom he learned his trade. 
She is represented, by those who knew her at the time of her 
marriage, as a handsome young woman of twenty-three, of ap- 
pearance and intellect superior to her lowly fortunes. The 
young couple began housekeeping with little means. Three 
children were born to them ; the first, a girl, who grew to ma- 
turity, married, and died, leaving no children ; the third, a boy, 
who died in infancy; the second was Abraham Lincoln. 
Thomas Lincoln remained in Kentucky until 1816, when he re- 
solved to remove to the still newer country of Indiana, and set- 
tled in a rich and fertile forest country near Little Pigeon creek, 
not far distant from the Ohio river. The family suffered from 
diseases incident to pioneer life, and 
Mrs. Lincoln died in 1818 at the age 
of thirty-five. Thomas Lincoln, while 
on a visit to Kentucky, married a 
worthy, industrious, and intelligent 
widow named Sarah Bush Johnston. 
She was a woman of admirable order 
and system in her habits, and brought 
to the home of the pioneer in the Lidi- 
ana timber many of the comforts of 
civilized life. The neighborhood was 
one of the roughest. The president 
once said of it : " It was a wild region, 
with many bears and other wild ani- 
mals still in the woods, and there were 
some schools, so called ; but no qualification was ever required 
of a teacher beyond readin', writin', and cipherin' to the rule of 
three. If a straggler supposed to understand Latin happened 
to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wiz- 
ard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for edu- 
cation." But in spite of this the boy Abraham made the best 
use of the limited opportunities afforded him, and learned all 
that the half-educated backwoods teachers could impart ; and 




y 



\/ 



302 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



besides this he read over and over all the books he could find. 
He practised constantly the rules of arithmetic, which he had 
acquired at school, and began, even in his early childhood, to 
put in writing his recollections of what he had read and his 
impressions of what he saw about him. By the time he was 
nineteen years of age he h. d acquired a remarkably clear and 
serviceable handwriting, and showed sufficient business capacity 
to be intrusted with a cargo of farm products, which he took to 
New Orleans and sold. In 1830 his father emigrated once 
more, to Macon county, 111. Lincoln had by this time attained 
his extraordinary stature of six feet four inches, and with it 
enormous muscular strength, which was at once put at the dis- 
posal of his father in building his cabin, clearing the field, and 
splitting from the walnut forests, which were plentiful in that 
county, the rails with which the farm was fenced. Thomas 
Lincoln, however, soon deserted this new home, his last migra- 
tion being to Goose Nest Prairie, in Coles county, where he died 
in 185 1, seventy-three years of age. In his last days he was 
tenderly cared for by his son. 

Abraham Lincoln left his father's house as soon as the farm 
was fenced and cleared, hired himself to a man named Denton 
Offutt, in Sangamon county, assisted him to build a flat-boat, 
accompanied him to New Orleans on a trading voyage, and re- 
turned with him to New Salem, in Menard county, where 
Offutt opened a store for the sale of general merchandise. 
Little was accomplished in this way, and Lincoln employed his 
too abundant leisure in constant reading and study. He 
learned during this time the elements of English grammar, and 
made a beginning in the study of surveying and the principles 
of law. But the next year an Indian war began, occasioned by 
the return of Black Hawk with his bands of Sacs and Foxes 
from Iowa to Illinois. Lincoln volunteered in a company 
raised in Sangamon county, and was immediately elected cap- 
tain. His company was organized at Richland on 21 April, 
1832 ; but his service in command of it was brief, for it was 
mustered out on 27 May. Lincoln immediately re-enlisted as 
a private, and served for several weeks in that capacity, being 
finally mustered out on 16 June, 1832, by Lieut. Robert Ander- 
son, who afterward commanded Fort Sumter at the beginning 
of the civil war. He returned home and began a hasty canvass 
for election to the legislature. His name had been announced 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



303 



in the spring before his enlistment ; but now only ten days 
were left before the election, which took place in August. In 
spite of these disadvantages, he made a good race and was far 
from the foot of the poll. Although he was defeated, he gained 
the almost unanimous vote of his own neighborhood, New 
Salem giving him 277 votes against 3. He now began to look 
about him for employment, and for a time thought seriously of 
learning the trade of a blacksmith; but an opportunity pre- 
sented itself to buy the only store in the settlement, which he 
did, giving his notes for the whole amount involved. He was 
associated with an idle and dissolute partner, and the busi- 
ness soon went to wreck, leaving Lincoln burdened with a debt 
which it required several years of frugality and industry for 
him to meet ; but it was finally paid in full. After this failure 
he devoted himself with the greatest earnestness and industry 
to the study of law. He was appointed postmaster of New 
Salem in 1833, an office which he held for three years. The 
emoluments of the place were very slight, but it gave him op- 
portunities for reading. At the same time he was appointed 
deputy to John Calhoun, the county surveyor, and, his modest 
wants being supplied by these two functions, he gave his re- 
maining leisure unreservedly to the study of law and politics. 
He was a candidate for the legislature in August, 1834, and was 
elected this time at the head of the list. He was re-elected in 
1836, 1838, and 1840, after which he declined further election. 
After entering the legislature he did not return to New Salem, 
but, having by this time attained some proficiency in the law, 
he removed to Springfield, where he went into partnership with 
John T. Stuart, whose acquaintance he had begun in the Black 
Hawk war and continued atVandalia. He took rank from the 
first among the leading members of the legislature. He was 
instrumental in having the state capital removed from Van- 
dalia to Springfield, and during his eight years of service his 
ability, industry, and weight of character gained him such stand- 
ing among his associates that in his last two terms he was the 
candidate of his party for the speakership of the house of rep- 
resentatives. In 1846 he was elected to congress, his opponent 
being the Rev. Peter Cartwright. The most important con- 
gressional measure with which his name was associated during 
his single term of service was a scheme for the emancipation 
of the slaves in the District of Columbia, which in the prevail- 



304 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



ing temper of the time was refused consideration by congress. 
He was not a candidate for re-election, but for the first and 
only time in his life he applied for an executive appointment, 
the commissionership of the general land-office. The place 
was given to another man, but President Taylor's administra- 
tion offered Mr. Lincoln the governorship of the territory of 
Oregon, which he declined. 

Mr. Lmcoln had by this time become the most influential 
exponent of the principles of the Whig party in Illinois, and 
his services were in request in every campaign. After his re- 
turn from congress he devoted himself with great assiduity and 
success to the practice of law, and speedily gained a command- 
ing position at the bar. As he says himself, he was losing his 
interest in politics when the repeal of the Missouri compromise 
aroused him again. The profound agitation of the question 
of slavery, which in 1854 followed the repeal of the Missouri 
compromise, awakened all the energies of Lincoln's nature. 
He regarded this act, in which Senator Douglas was the most 
prominent agent of the reactionary party, as a gross breach of 
faith, and began at once a series of earnest political discussions 
which immediately placed him at the head of the party that, 
not only in Illinois but throughout the west, was speedily 
formed to protest against and oppose the throwing open of the 
territories to the encroachments of slavery. The legislature 

elected in Illinois in the heat of 
this discussion contained a ma- 
jority of members opposed to 
the policy of Douglas. The 
duty of selecting a senator in 
place of Gen. Shields, whose term 
was closing, devolved upon this 
legislature, and Mr. Lincoln was 
the unanimous choice of the 
Whig members. But they did 
not command a clear majority of the legislature. There were 
four members of Democratic antecedents who, while they were 
ardently opposed to the extension of slavery, were not willing 
to cast their votes for a Whig candidate, and adhered tena- 
ciously through several ballots to Lyman Trumbull, a Democrat 
of their own way of thinking. Lincoln, fearing that this dis- 
sension among the anti-slavery men might result in the elec- 




ABRAHAM LIXCOLX. 



305 



tion of a supporter of Douglas, urged his friends to go over in 
a body to the support of Trumbull, and his influence was suffi- 
cient to accomplish this result. Trumbull was elected, and for 
many years served the Republican cause in the senate with 
ability and zeal. 

As soon as the Republican party became fully organized in 
the nation, embracing in its ranks the anti-slavery members of 
the old Whig and Democratic parties, Mr, Lincoln, by general 
consent, took his place at the head of the party in Illinois; and 
when, in 1858, Senator Douglas sought a re-election to the sen- 
ate, the Republicans with one voice selected Mr. Lincoln as his 
antagonist. He had already made several speeches of remark- 
able eloquence and power against the pro-slavery reaction of 
which the Nebraska bill was the significant beginning, and when 
Mr. Douglas returned to Illinois to begin his canvass for the 
senate, he was challenged by Mr. Lincoln to a series of joint 
discussions. The challenge was accepted, and the most re- 
markable oratorical combat the state has ever witnessed took 
place between them during the summer. Mr. Douglas defend- 
ed his thesis of non-intervention with slavery in the territories 
(the doctrine known as "popular sovereignty," and derided as 
" squatter sovereignty ") with remarkable adroitness and 
energy. The ground that Mr. Lincoln took was higher and 
bolder than had yet been assumed by any American statesman 
of his time. In the brief and sententious speech in which he 
accepted the championship of his party, before the Republican 
convention of 16 June, 1858, he uttered the following pregnant 
and prophetic words : " A house divided against itself cannot 
stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently 
half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dis- 
solved ; I do not expect the house to fall ; but I do expect that 
it will cease to be divided. It will become all the one thing or 
all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the 
further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall 
rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction, or 
its advocates will push it forward until it shall become alike 
lawful in all the states, old as well as new, north as well as 
south." This bold utterance excited the fears of his timid 
friends, and laid him open to the hackneyed and conventional 
attacks of the supporters of slavery ; but throughout the con- 
test, while he did not for an instant lower this lofty tone of op- 



3o6 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



position to slavery and hope of its extinction, he refused to be 
crowded by the fears of his friends or the denunciations of his 
enemies away from the strictly constitutional ground upon 
which his opposition was made. The debates between him and 
Senator Douglas aroused extraordinary interest throughout 
the state and the country. The men were perhaps, equally 
matched in oratorical ability and adroitness in debate, but Lin- 
coln's superiority in moral insight, and especially in far-seeing 
political sagacity, soon became apparent. The most important 
and significant of the debates was that which took place at Free- 
port. Mr. Douglas had previously asked Mr. Lincoln a series 
of questions intended to embarrass him, which Lincoln without 
the slightest reserve answered by a categorical yes or no. At 
Freeport, Lincoln, taking his turn, inquired of Douglas whether 
the people of a territory could in any lawful way, against the 
wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery 
from its limits prior to the formation of a state constitution. 
By his reply, intimating that slavery might be excluded by 
unfriendly territorial legislation, Douglas gained a momentary 
advantage in the anti-slavery region in which he spoke, but 
dealt a fatal blow to his popularity in the south, the result of 
which was seen two years afterward at the Charleston conven- 
tion. The ground assumed by Senator Douglas was, in fact, 
utterly untenable, and Lincoln showed this in one of his terse 
sentences. "Judge Douglas holds," he said, "that a thing 
may lawfully be driven away from a place where it has a law- 
ful right to go." 

This debate established the reputation of Mr. Lincoln as 
one of the leading orators of the Republican party of the 
Union, and a speech that he delivered at Cooper Institute, in 
New York, on 27 Feb., i860, in which he showed that the un- 
broken record of the founders of the republic was in favor of 
the restriction of slavery and against its extension, widened 
and confirmed his reputation ; so that when the Republican con- 
vention came together in Chicago in May, i860, he was nomi- 
nated for the presidency on the third ballot, over William H. 
Seward, who was his principal compeftitor. The Democratic 
convention, which met in Charleston, S. C, broke up after 
numerous fruitless ballotings, and divided into two sections. 
The southern half, unable to trust Mr. Douglas with the inter- 
ests of slavery after his Freeport speech, first adjourned to 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



307 



Richmond, but again joined the other half at Baltimore, where 
a second disruption took place, after which the southern half 
nominated John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, and the northern 
portion nominated Mr. Douglas. John Bell, of Tennessee, was 
nominated by the so-called Constitutional Union party. Lin- 
coln, therefore, supported by the entire anti-slavery sentiment 
of the north, gained an easy victory over the three other par- 
ties. The election took place on 6 Nov., and when the elec- 
toral college cast their votes Lincoln was found to have 180, 
Breckinridge 72, Bell 39, and Douglas 12. The popular vote 
stood: for Lincoln, 1,866,462; for Douglas, 1,375,157; for 
Breckinridge, 847,953; for Bell, 590,631. 

The extreme partisans of slavery had not even waited for 
the election of Lincoln, to begin their preparations for an in- 
surrection, and as soon as the result was declared a movement 
for separation was begun in South Carolina, and it carried 
along with her the states of Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Missis- 
sippi, Louisiana, and Texas. A provisional government, styled 
the " Confederate States of America," of which Jefferson Davis, 
of Mississippi, was made president, was promptly organized, 
and seized, with few exceptions, all the posts, arsenals, and 
public property of the United States within their limits. Con- 
fronted by this extraordinary crisis, Mr. Lincoln kept his own 
counsel, and made no public expression of his intentions or his 
policy until he was inaugurated on 4 March, 1861. 

He called about him a cabinet of the most prominent mem- 
bers of the anti-slavery parties of the nation, giving no prefer- 
ence to any special faction. His secretary of state was William 
H. Seward, of New York, who had been his principal rival for 
the nomination, and whose eminence and abilities designated 
him as the leading member of the administration ; the secre- 
tary of the treasury was Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, whose 
pre-eminence in the west was as unquestioned as Seward's in 
the east ; of war, Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, the most 
influential politician of that state; of the navy, Gideon Welles, 
of Connecticut; of the interior, Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana; 
the border slave-states were represented in the government by 
Edward Bates, of Missouri, attorney-general, and Montgomery 
Blair, of Maryland, postmaster-general — both of -them men of 
great distinction of character and high standing as lawyers. 
Seward, Smith, and Bates were of Whig antecedents; all the 
21 



3o8 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



rest of Democratic. The cabinet underwent, in the course of 
Mr. Lincoln's term, the following modifications: Sec. Chase, 
after a brilliant administration of the finances, resigned in 1864 
from personal reasons, and was succeeded by William P. Fessen- 
den, of Maine; Sec. Cameron left the war department at the 
close of the year 1861, and was appointed minister to Russia, 
and his place was taken by Edwin M. Stanton, a war Democrat 
of singular energy and vigor, and equal ability and devotion ; 
Sec. Smith, accepting a judgeship, gave way to John P. Usher, 

of Indiana ; Attorney-General 
Bates resigned in the last year 
of the administration, and was 
succeeded by James Speed, of 
Kentucky; and Postmaster-Gen- 
eral Blair about the same time 
gave way to William Dennison, 
of Ohio. 

In his inaugural address Presi- 
dent Lmcoln treated the acts of 
secession as a nullity. He de- 
clared the Union perpetual and 
inviolate, and announced with 
perfect firmness, though with the 
greatest moderation of speech 
and feeling, the intention of the 
government to maintain its au- 
thority and to hold the places 
under its jurisdiction. He made 
an elaborate and unanswerable 
argument against the legality as well as the justice of se- 
cession, and further showed, with convincing clearness, that 
peaceful secession was impossible. " Can aliens make treaties," 
he said, " easier than friends can make laws ? Can treaties be 
more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among 
friends ? Suppose you go to war ; you cannot fight always, 
and when, after much loss on both sides and no gain on either, 
you cease fighting, the identical old questions as to terms of 
intercourse are again upon you." He pleaded for peace in a 
strain of equal tenderness and dignity, and in closing he said : 
" In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in 
mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



309 



not assail you. You can have no conflict without being your- 
selves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven 
to destroy the government, while I shall have a most solemn 
one to preserve, protect, and defend it." This speech pro- 
foundly affected the public opinion of the north; but in the 
excited state of sentiment that then controlled the south it 
naturally met only contempt and defiance in that section. A 
few weeks later the inevitable war began, in an attack upon 
Fort Sumter by the secessionists of South Carolina under Gen. 
P. G. T. Beauregard, and after a long bombardment the fort sur- 
rendered on 13 April, 1861. The president instantly called for 
a force of 75,000 three-months' militiamen, and three weeks later 
ordered the enlistment of 64,000 soldiers and 18,000 seamen for 
three years. He set on foot a blockade of the southern ports, 
and called congress together in special session, choosing for 
their day of meeting the 4th of July. The rernaining states of 
the south rapidly arrayed themselves on one side or the other; 
all except Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri were drawn into 
the secession movement, and the western part of Virginia, ad- 
hering to the Union, under the name of West Virginia, sepa- 
rated itself from that ancient commonwealth. 

The first important battle of the war took place at Bull 
Run, near Manassas station, Va., 21 July, 1861, and resulted in 
the defeat of the National troops under Gen. Irwin McDowell 
by a somewhat larger force of the Confederates under Gens. 
Joseph E. Johnston and Beauregard. Though the loss in killed 
and wounded was not great, and was about the same on both 
sides, the victory was still one of the utmost importance for the 
Confederates, and gave them a great increase of prestige on 
both sides of the Atlantic. They were not, however, able to 
pursue their advantage. The summer was passed in enlisting, 
drilling, and equipping a formidable National army on the 
banks of the Potomac, which was given in charge of Gen. 
George B. McClellan, a young officer who had distinguished 
himself by a successful campaign in western Virginia. In spite 
of the urgency of the government, which was increased by the 
earnestness of the people and their representatives in congress, 
Gen. McClellan made no advance until the sprmg of 1862, 
when Gen. Johnston, in command of the Confederate army, 
evacuated the position which, with about 45,000 men, he had 
held during the autumn and winter against the Army of the 



3IO 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Potomac, amounting to about 177,000 effectives. Gen. McClel- 
lan then transferred his army to the peninsula between the 
James and York rivers. Although there was but a force of 
16,000 opposed to him when he landed, he spent a month be- 
fore the works at Yorktown, and when he was prepared to open 
fire upon them they were evacuated, and Gen. Johnston re- 
treated to the neighborhood of Richmond. The battle of 
Seven Pines, in which the Confederates, successful in their first 
attack, were afterward repelled, was fought on 31 May, 1862. 
Johnston was wounded, and the command devolved upon Gen. 
Robert E. Lee, who in the latter part of June moved out from 
his position before Richmond and attacked McClellan's right 
flank, under Gen. Fitz-John Porter, at Gaines's Mills, north of 
the Chickahominy. Porter, with one corps, resisted the Con- 
federate army all day with great gallantry, unassisted by the 
main army under McClellan, but withdrew in the evening, and 
McClellan at once began his retreat to the James river. Sev- 
eral battles were fought on the way, in which the Confederates 
were checked ; but the retreat continued until the National 
army reached the James. Taking position at Malvern Hill, 
they inflicted a severe defeat upon Gen. Lee, but were immedi- 
ately after withdrawn by Gen. McClellan to Harrison's Land- 
ing. Here, as at other times during his career, McClellan la- 
bored under a strange hallucination as to the numbers of his 
enemy. He generally estimated them at not less than twice 
their actual force, and continually reproached the president for 
not giving him impossible re-enforcements to equal the imagi- 
nary numbers he thought opposed to him. Li point of fact, his 
army was always in excess of that of Johnston or Lee. The 
continual disasters in the east were somewhat compensated by 
a series of brilliant successes in the west. Li February, 1862, 
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had captured the Confederate forts 
Henry and Donelson, thus laying open the great strategic lines 
of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, and, moving south- 
ward, had fought (6 and 7 April) the battle of Shiloh, with un- 
favorable results on the first day, which were turned to a vic- 
tory on the second with the aid of Gen. D. C. Buell and his 
army, a battle in which Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston was killed 
and the Confederate invasion of Kentucky baffled. Farragut, 
on 24 April, had won a brilliant naval victory, over the twin 
forts above the mouths of the Mississippi, which resulted in 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



311 



the capture of New Orleans and the control of the lower Mis- 
sissippi. After Gen. McClellan's retreat to the James, the 
president visited the army at Harrison's Landing (8 July), and, 
after careful consultations with the corps commanders, became 
convinced that in the actual disposition of the officers and the 
troops there was no reasonable expectation of a successful 
movement upon Richmond by McClellan. An order was there- 
fore issued for the withdrawal of the army from the James, 
and, Gen. Halleck having been appointed general-in-chief, 
Gen. Pope was sent forward from Washington with a small 
force to delay the Confederate army under Gen. Lee until the 
Army of the Potomac could arrive and be concentrated to sup- 
port him. McClellan's movements, however, were so deliber- 
ate, and there was such a want of confidence and co-operation 
on the part of his officers toward Gen. Pope, that the National 
army met with a decisive defeat on the same battle-field of 
Bull Run that saw their first disaster. Gen. Pope, disheartened 
by the lack of sympathy and support that he discerned among 
the most eminent officers of the Army of the Potomac, retreat- 
ed upon Washington, and Gen. McClellan, who seemed to be 
the only officer under whom the army was at the moment will- 
ing to serve, was placed in command of it. Gen. Lee, elated 
with his success, crossed the Potomac, but was met by the army 
under McClellan at South Mountain and Antietam, and after 
two days of great slaughter Lee retreated into Virgmia. 

President Lincoln availed himself of this occasion to give 
effect to a resolve that had long been maturing in his mind in 
an act the most momentous in its significance and results that 
the century has witnessed. For a year and a half he had been 
subjected to urgent solicitations from the two great political 
parties of the country, the one side appealing to him to take 
decided measures against slavery, and the other imploring him 
to pursue a conservative course in regard to that institution. 
His deep-rooted detestation of the system of domestic servi- 
tude was no secret to any one; but his reverence for the law, 
his regard for vested interests, and his anxiety to do nothing 
that should alienate any considerable body of the supporters of 
the government, had thus far induced him to pursue a middle 
course between the two extremes. Meanwhile the power of 
events had compelled a steady progress in the direction of 
emancipation. So early as August, 1861, congress had passed 



312 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



an act to confiscate the rights of slave-owners in slaves em- 
ployed in a manner hostile to the Union, and Gen. Fremont had 
seized the occasion of the passage of this act to issue an order 
to confiscate and emancipate the slaves of rebels in the state of 
Missouri. President Lincoln, unwilling, in a matter of such 
transcendent importance, to leave the initiative to any subor- 
dinate, revoked this order, and di- 
rected Gen. Fremont to modify it 
so that it should conform to the 
confiscation act of congress. This 
excited violent opposition to the 
president among the radical anti- 
slavery men in Missouri and else- 
where, while it drew upon him the 
scarcely less embarassing impor- 
tunities of the conservatives, who 
wished him to take still more de- 
cided ground against the radicals. 
On 6 March, 1S62, he sent a spe- 
cial message to congress inclosing 
a resolution, the passage of which 
he recommended, to offer pecuni- 
ary aid from the general govern- 
ment to states that should adopt 
the gradual abolishment of slav- 
ery. This resolution was prompt- 
ly passed by congress ; but in 
none of the slave-states was public 
sentiment sufificiently advanced to permit them to avail them- 
selves of it. The next month, however, congress passed a law 
emancipating slaves in the District of Columbia, with compen- 
sation to owners, and President Lincoln had the happiness of 
affixing his signature to a measure that he had many years be- 
fore, while a representative from Illinois, fruitlessly urged upon 
the notice of congress. As the war went on, wherever the Na- 
tional armies penetrated there was a constant stream of fugitive 
slaves from the adjoining regions, and the commanders of each 
department treated the complicated questions arising from this 
body of " contrabands," as they came to be called, in their camps, 
according to their own judgment of the necessities or the expe- 
diencies of each case, a discretion which the president thought 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



313 



best to tolerate. But on 9 May, 1862, Gen. David Hunter, an 
intimate and esteemed friend of Mr. Lincoln's, saw proper, 
without consultation with him, to issue a military order declar- 
ing all persons theretofore held as slaves in Georgia, Florida, 
and South Carolina forever free. The president, as soon as he 
received this order, issued a proclamation declaring it void, and 
reserving to himself the decision of the question whether it was 
competent for him, as commander-in-chief of the army and 
navy, to declare the slaves of any state or states free, and 
whether at any time or in any case it should have become a 
necessity indispensable to the maintenance of the government 
to exercise such supposed power, and prohibiting to command- 
ers in the field the decision of such questions. But he added 
in his proclamation a significant warning and appeal to the 
slave-holding states, urging once more upon them the policy of 
emancipation by state action. " I do not argue," he said ; "I 
beseech you to make the argument for yourselves. You can- 
not, if you would, be blind to the signs of the times. I beg of 
you a calm and enlarged consideration of them, ranging, if it 
may be, far above personal and partisan politics. This pro- 
posal makes common cause for a common object, casting no 
reproaches upon any. . . . Will you not embrace it ? So much 
good has not been done, by one effort, in all past time, as in 
the providence of God it is now your high privilege to do. 
May the vast future not have cause to lament that you have 
neglected it." He had several times endeavored to bring this 
proposition before the members of congress from the loyal 
slave-holding states, and on 12 July he invited them to meet 
him at the executive mansion, and submitted to them a power- 
ful and urgent appeal to induce their states to adopt the 
policy of compensated emancipation. He told them, with- 
out reproach or complaint, that he believed that if they had 
all voted for the resolution in the gradual emancipation mes- 
sage of the preceding March, the war would now have been 
substantially ended, and that the plan therein proposed was 
still one of the most potent and swift means of ending it. 
" Let the states," he said, " which are in rebellion see definitely 
and certainly that m no event will the states you represent 
ever join their proposed confederacy, and they cannot much 
longer maintain the contest " While urging this policy upon 
the conservatives, and while resolved in his own mind upon 



314 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



emancipation by decree as a last resource, he was the subject 
of vehement attacks from the more radical anti-slavery sup- 
porters of the government, to which he replied with unfailing 
moderation and good temper. Although in July he had re- 
solved upon his course, and had read to his cabinet a draft of a 
proclamation of emancipation which he had then laid aside for 
a more fitting occasion (on the suggestion from Mr. Seward 
that its issue in the disastrous condition of our military affairs 
would be interpreted as a sign of desperation), he met the re- 
proaches of the radical Republicans, the entreaties of visiting 
delegations, and the persuasions of his eager friends with argu- 
ments showing both sides of the question of which they persist- 
ed in seeing only one. To Horace Greeley, on 22 Aug., Mr. 
Lincoln said: " My paramount object is to save the Union, 
and not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the 
Union without freeing any slave, 1 would do it; if I could save 
it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it ; and if I could do it 
by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that." 
And even so late as 13 Sept. he said to a delegation of a re- 
ligious society, who were urging immediate action : " I do not 
want to issue a document that the whole world will see must 
necessarily be inoperative, like the pope's bull against the 
comet. . . . I view this matter as a practical war measure, to be 
decided on according to the advantages or disadvantages it may 
offer to the suppression of the rebellion." Still, he assured them 
that he had not decided against a proclamation of liberty to 
the slaves, but that the matter occupied his deepest thoughts. 
The retreat of Lee from Maryland after his defeat at Antietam 
seemed to the president to afford a proper occasion for the 
execution of his long-matured resolve, and on 22 Sept. he is- 
sued his preliminary proclamation, giving notice to the states in 
rebellion that, on i Jan., 1863, all persons held as slaves within 
any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof 
should then be in rebellion against the United States, should 
be then, thenceforward, and forever free. When congress 
came together on i Dec. he urged them to supplement what had 
already been done by constitutional action, concluding his 
message with this impassioned appeal : " Fellow-citizens, we 
cannot escape history. We of this congress and this adminis- 
tration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal 
significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



315 



The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in 
honor or in dishonor to the latest generation. We — even we 
here — hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving 
freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free — honor- 




able alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall 
nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope of earth. Other 
means may succeed ; this could not fail. The way is plain, 
peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world 



3i6 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

will forever applaud, and God must forever bless." It was 
hardly to be expected, however, that any action would be taken 
by congress before the lapse of the hundred days that the presi- 
dent had left between his warning and its execution. On i Jan., 
1863, the final proclamation of emancipation was issued. It re- 
cited the preliminary document, and then designated the states in 
rebellion against the United States. They were Arkansas, Tex- 
as, a part of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, 
South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, excepting certain 
counties. The proclamation then continued : " I do order and 
declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated 
states and parts of states are, and henceforward shall be, 
free; and that the executive government of the United States, 
including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recog- 
nize and maintain the freedom of said persons." The criti- 
cisms and forebodings of the opponents of emancipation had 
well-nigh been exhausted during the previous three months, 
and the definitive proclamation was received with general en- 
thusiasm throughout the loyal states. The dissatisfaction with 
which this important measure was regarded in the border 
states gradually died away, as did also the opposition in con- 
servative quarters to the enlistment of negro soldiers. Their 
good conduct, their quick submission to discipline, and their 
excellent behavior in several battles, rapidly made an end of 
the prejudice against them; and when, in the winter session of 
congress of i863-'4, Mr. Lincoln again urged upon the atten- 
tion of that body the passage of a constitutional amendment 
abolishing slavery, his proposition met with the concurrence of 
a majority of congress, though it failed of the necessary two- 
third vote in the house of representatives. During the follow- 
ing year, however, public opinion made rapid progress, and the 
influence of the president with congress was largely increased 
after his triumphant re-election. In his annual message of 6 
Dec, 1864, he once more pleaded, this time with irresistible 
force, in favor of constitutional emancipation in all the states. 
As there had been much controversy during the year in regard 
to the president's anti-slavery convictions, and the suggestion 
had been made in many quarters that, for the sake of peace, he 
might be induced to withdraw the proclamation, he repeated 
the declaration made the year before : " While I remain in my 
present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ^I? 

emancipation proclamation ; nor shall I return to slavery any 
person who is free by the terms of that proclamation or by any 
of the acts of congress. If the people should, by whatever 
mode or means, make it an executive duty to re-enslave such 
persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument to per- 
form it." This time congress acted with alacrity, and on 31 Jan., 
1865, proposed to the states the 13th amendment to the consti- 
tution, providing that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, 
except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have 
been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or 
any place subject to their jurisdiction. The states rapidly 
adopted the amendment by the action of their legislatures, and 
the president was especially pleased that his own state of Illi- 
nois led the van, having passed the necessary resolution within 
twenty-four hours. Before the year ended twenty-seven of the 
thirty-six states (being the necessary three fourths) had rati- 
fied the amendment, and President Johnson, on 18 Dec, 1865, 
ofhcially proclaimed its adoption. 

While the energies of the government and of the people 
were most strenuously occupied with the war and the questions 
immediately concernmg it, the four years of Mr. Lincoln's ad- 
ministration had their full share of complicated and difficult 
questions of domestic and foreign concern. The interior and 
post-office departments made great progress in developing the 
means of communication throughout the country. Mr. Chase, 
as secretary of the treasury, performed, with prodigious ability 
and remarkable success, the enormous duties devolving upon 
him of providing funds to supply the army at an expense 
amounting at certain periods to $3,000,000 a day ; and Mr. 
Seward, in charge of the state department, held at bay the sup- 
pressed hostility of European nations. Of all his cabinet, the 
president sustained with Mr. Seward relations of the closest 
intimacy, and for that reason, perhaps, shared more directly in 
the labors of his department. He revised the first draft of 
most of Seward's important despatches, and changed and 
amended their language with remarkable wisdom and skill. 
He was careful to avoid all sources of controversy or ill-feeling 
with foreign nations, and when they occurred he did his best to 
settle them in the interests of peace, without a sacrifice of na- 
tional dignity. 

At the end of the year 1861 the friendly relations between 



31! 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



England and the United States were seriously threatened by 
the capture of the confederate envoys, James Murray Mason 
and John Slidell, on board a British merchant-ship. Public 
sentiment approved the capture, and, as far as could be judged 
by every manifestation in the press and in congress, was in 
favor of retaining the prisoners and defiantly refusing the de- 
mand of England for their return. But when the president, 
after mature deliberation, decided that the capture was against 
American precedents, and directed their return to British cus- 
tody, the second thought of the country was with him. His 
prudence and moderation were also conspicuously displayed 
in his treatment of the question of the invasion of Mexico by 
France, and the establishment by military power of the em- 
peror Maximilian in that country. Accepting as genuine the 
protestations of the emperor of the French, that he intended no 
interference with the will of the people of Mexico, he took no 
measures unfriendly to France or the empire, except those 
involved in the maintenance of unbroken friendship with the 
republican government under President Juarez, a proceeding 
that, although severely criticised by the more ardent spirits in 
congress, ended, after the president's death, in the triumph of 
the National party in Mexico and the downfall of the invaders. 
He left no doubt, however, at any time, in regard to his own 
conviction that " the safety of the people of the United States 
and the cheerful destiny to which they aspire are intimately 
dependent upon the maintenance of free republican institutions 
throughout Mexico." He dealt in a sterner spirit with the 
proposition for foreign mediation that the emperor of the 
French, after seeking in vain the concurrence of other Euro- 
pean powers, at last presented singly at the beginning of 1863. 
This proposition, under the orders of the president, was de- 
clined by Mr. Seward on 6 Feb., in a despatch of remarkable 
ability and dignity, which put an end to all discussion of over- 
tures of intervention from European powers. The diplomatic 
relations with England were exceedingly strained at several 
periods during the war. The building and fitting out of Con- 
federate cruisers in English ports, and their escape, after their 
construction and its purpose had been made known by the 
American minister, more than once brought the two nations to 
the verge of war; but the moderation with which the claims of 
the United States were made by Mr. Lincoln, the energy and 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



319 



ability displayed by Sec. Seward and by Mr. Cliarles Francis 
Adams in presenting these claims, and, it must now be recog- 
nized, the candor and honesty with which the matter was 
treated by Earl Russell, the British minister for foreign affairs, 
saved the two countries from that irreparable disaster ; and the 
British government at last took such measures as were neces- 
sary to put an end to this indirect war from the shores of Eng- 
land upon American commerce. In the course of two years 
the war attained such proportions that volunteering was no 
longer a sufficient resource to keep the army, consisting at that 
time of nearly a million men, at its full fighting strength. Con- 
gress therefore authorized, and the departments executed, a 
scheme of enrolment and draft of the arms-bearing population 
of the loyal states. Violent opposition arose to this measure 
in many parts of the country, which was stimulated by the 
speeches of orators of the opposition, and led, in many in- 
stances, to serious breaches of the public peace. A frightful 
riot, beginning among the foreign population of New York, 
kept that city in disorder and terror 
for three days in July, 1863. But 
the riots were suppressed, the dis- 
turbances quieted at last, and the 
draft was executed throughout the 
country. Clement L. Vallandigham, 
of Ohio, one of the most eloquent 
and influential orators of the Demo- 
cratic party, was arrested in Ohio 
by Gen. Burnside for his violent pub- 
lic utterances in opposition to the 
war, tried by a military court, and 
sentenced to imprisonment during 
the continuance of the war. The 
president changed his sentence to 

that of transportation within the lines of the rebellion. These 
proceedings caused a great ferment among his party in Ohio, 
who, by way of challenge to the government, nominated him 
for governor of that state. A committee of its prominent 
politicians demanded from the president his restoration to his 
political rights, and a correspondence took place between them 
and the president, in which the rights and powers of the gov- 
ernment in case of rebellion were set forth by him with great 



ilfA 




320 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



lucidity and force. His letters exercised an important influ- 
ence in the political discussions of the year, and Mr. Vallan- 
digham was defeated in his candidacy by John Brough by a 
majority of 100,000 votes. 

The war still continued at a rate that appears rapid enough 
in retrospect, but seemed slow to the eager spirits watching its 
course. The disasters of the Army of the Potomac did not 
end with the removal of Gen. McClellan, which took place in 
November, 1862, as a consequence of his persistent delay in 
pursuing Lee's retreating army after the battle of Antietam. 
Gen. Burnside, who succeeded him, suffered a humiliating defeat 
in his attack upon the intrenched position of the Confederates 
at Fredericksburg. Gen. Hooker, who next took command, 
after opening his campaign by crossing the Rapidan in a march 
of extraordinary brilliancy, was defeated at Chancellorsville, in 
a battle where both sides lost severely, and then retired again 
north of the river. Gen. Lee, leaving the National army 
on his right flank, crossed the Potomac, and Hooker having, at 
his own request, been relieved and succeeded by Gen. Meade, 
the two armies met in a three days' battle at Gettysburg, Pa., 
where Gen. Lee sustained a decisive defeat, and was driven 
back into Virginia. His flight from Gettysburg began on the 
evenmg of the 4th of July, a day that in this year doubled its 
lustre as a historic anniversary. For on this day Vicksburg, 
the most important Confederate stronghold in the west, sur- 
rendered to Gen. Grant. He had spent the early months of 
1863 in successive attempts to take that fortress, all of which 
had failed ; but on the last day of April he crossed the river at 
Grand Gulf, and within a few days fought the successful bat- 
tles of Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hills, and 
the Big Black river, and shut up the army of Pemberton in 
close siege in the city of Vicksburg, which he finally captured 
with about 30,000 men on the 4th of July. 

The speech that Mr. Lincoln delivered at the dedication of 
the National cemetery on the battle-field of Gettysburg, 19 
Nov., 1863, was at once recognized as the philosophy in brief 
of the whole great struggle, and has already become classic. 
There are slightly differing versions; the one that is here given 
is a literal transcript of the speech as he afterward wrote it out 
for a fair in Baltimore : 

" Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth 



A BRA HA M LINCOLN: 



321 



on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedi- 
cated to tlie proposition that all men are created equal. Now 
we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that 
nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can 
long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. 
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final rest- 
ing-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation 
might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should 
do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we can- 
not consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave 
men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated 
it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world 
will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it 
can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, 
rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which 
they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is 
rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining 
before us — that from these honored dead we take increased 
devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure 
of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall 
not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have 
a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, 
by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." 
Gen. Grant was transferred to Chattanooga, where, in No- 
vember, with the troops of Thomas, Hooker, and Sherman, he 
won the important victory of Missionary Ridge; and then, be- 
ing appointed lieutenant-general and general-in-chief of the 
armies of the United States, he went to Washington and en- 
tered upon the memorable campaign of 1864. This campaign 
began with revived hopes on the part of the government, the 
people, and'the army. The president, glad that the army had 
now at its head a general in whose ability and enterprise he 
could thoroughly confide, ceased from that moment to exercise 
any active influence on its movements. He wrote, on 30 April, 
to Gen. Grant: "The particulars of your plans I neither know 
nor seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant, and, 
pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any constraints or re- 
straints upon you. ... If there is anything wanting which is 
in my power to give, do not fail to let me know it. And now, 
with a brave army and a just cause, may God sustain you." 
Grant crossed the Rapidan on 4 May, intending to move by 



322 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



the right flank of Gen. Lee ; but the two armies came together 
in a gloomy forest called the Wilderness, where, from the 5th 
to the 7th of May, one of the most sanguinary battles known 
to modern warfare was fought. Neither side having gained 
any decisive advantage in this deadly struggle, Grant moved 
to the left, and Lee met him again at Spottsylvania Court- 
House, where for ten days a series of destructive contests took 
place, in which both sides were alternately successful. Still 
moving to the left, Grant again encountered the enemy at the 
crossing of North Anna river, and still later at Cold Harbor, a 
few miles northeast of Richmond, where, assaulting Gen. Lee's 
army in a fortified position, he met with a bloody repulse. He 
then crossed the James river, intending by a rapid movement to 
seize Petersburg and the Confederate Imes of communication 
south of Richmond, but was baffled in this purpose, and forced 
to enter upon a regular siege of Petersburg, which occupied the 
summer and autumn. While these operations were in progress, 
Gen. Philip H. Sheridan had made one of the most brilliant 
cavalry raids in the war, threatening Richmond and defeating 
the Confederate cavalry under Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, and killing 
that famous leader. While Grant lay before Richmond, Gen. 
Lee, hoping to induce him to attack his works, despatched a 
force under Gen. Early to threaten Washington ; but Grant 
sent two corps of his army northward, and Early — after a sharp 
skirmish under the fortifications of Washmgton, where Mr. 
Lincoln was personally present — was driven back through the 
Shenandoah valley, and on two occasions, in September and 
October, was signally defeated by Gen. Sheridan. 

Gen. William T. Sherman, who had been left in command 
of the western district formerly commanded by Grant, moved 
southward at the same time that Grant crossed the Rapidan. 
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, one of the ablest of the Confederate 
generals, retired gradually before him, defending himself at 
every halt with the greatest skill and address ; but his move- 
ments not proving satisfactory to the Richmond governnient, 
he was removed, and Gen. John B. Hood appointed in his place. 
After a summer of hard fighting, Sherman, on i Sept., captured 
Atlanta, one of the chief manufacturing and railroad centres of 
the south, and later in the autumn organized and executed a 
magnificent march to the seaboard, which proved that the mili- 
tary power of the Confederacy had been concentrated at a few 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



323 



points on the frontier, and that the interior was little more than 
an empty shell. He reached the sea-coast early in December, 
investing Savannah on the loth, and capturing the city on the 
2ist. He then marched northward with the intention of assist- 
ing Gen. Grant in the closing scenes of the war. The army 
under Gen. George H. Thomas, who had been left in Tennessee 
to hold Hood m check while this movement was going on, 
after severely handling the Confederates in the preliminary 
battle of Franklin, 30 Nov., inflicted upon General Hood a 
crushing and final defeat in the battle of Nashville, 16 Dec, 
routing and driving him from the state. 

During the summer, while Grant was engaged in the des- 
perate and indecisive series of battles that marked his south- 
ward progress in Virginia, and Sherman had not yet set out 
upon his march to the sea, one of the most ardent political 
canvasses the country had ever seen was in progress at the 
north. Mr. Lincoln, on 8 June, had been unanimously renom- 
inated for the presidency by the Republican convention at 
Baltimore. The Democratic leaders had postponed their con- 
vention to a date unusually late, in the hope that some advan- 
tage might be reaped from the events of the summer. The 
convention came together on 29 Aug. in Chicago. Mr. Vallan- 
digham, who had returned from his banishment, and whom the 
government had sagaciously declined to rearrest, led the ex- 
treme peace party in the convention. Prominent politicians of 
New York were present in the interest of Gen. McClellan. 
Both sections of the convention gained their point. Gen, 
McClellan was nominated for the presidency, and Mr. Vallan- 
digham succeeded in imposing upon his party a platform declar- 
ing that the war had been a failure, and demanding a cessation 
of hostilities. The capture of Atlanta on the day the conven- 
tion adjourned seemed to the Unionists a providential answer 
to the opposition. Republicans, who had been somewhat dis- 
heartened by the slow progress of military events and by the 
open and energetic agitation that the peace 'party had con- 
tinued through the summer at the north, now took heart again, 
and the canvass proceeded with the greatest spirit to the close. 
Sheridan's victory over Early in the Shenandoah valley gave 
an added impulse to the general enthusiasm, and in the 
October elections it was shown that the name of Mr. Lincoln 
was more popular, and his influence more powerful, than any 
22 



324 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



one had anticipated. In the election that took place on 8 Nov., 
1864, he received 2,216,000 votes, and Gen. McClellan 1,800,000. 
The difference in the electoral vote was still greater, Mr. 
Lincoln being supported by 212 of the presidential electors, 
while only 21 voted for McClellan. 

President Lincoln's second inaugural address, delivered on 
4 March, 1865, will forever remain not only one of the most 
remarkable of all his public utterances, but will also hold a 
high rank among the greatest state papers that history has 
preserved. As he neared the end of his career, and saw plainly 
outlined before him the dimensions of the vast moral and 
material success that the nation was about to achieve, his 
thoughts, always predisposed to an earnest and serious view of 
life, assumed a fervor and exaltation like that of the ancient 
seers and prophets. The speech that he delivered to the vast 
concourse at the eastern front of the capitol is the briefest of 
all the presidential addresses in our annals ; but it has not its 

equal in lofty eloquence and austere 
morality. The usual historical view 
of the situation, the ordinary present- 
ment of the intentions of the govern- 
ment, seemed matters too trivial to 
engage the concern of a mind stand- 
ing, as Lincoln's apparently did at 
this moment, face to face with the 
most tremendous problems of fate 
and moral responsibility. In the 
briefest words he announced what 
had been the cause of the war, and 
how the government had hoped to 
bring it to an earlier close. With passionless candor he ad- 
mitted that neither party expected for the war the magnitude 
or the duration it had attained. " Each looked for an easier 
triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding"; and, 
passing into a strain of rhapsody, which no lesser mind and 
character could ever dare to imitate, he said : " Both read the 
same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes his aid 
against the other. It may seem strange that any men should 
dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from 
the sweat of other men's faces. But let us judge not, that we 
be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; 





4 



4 ^ 
\ 



1^ 






4 111 « 



^ 



Js -is 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



325 



that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his 
own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because of offences! for 
it must needs be that offences come ; but woe to that man by 
whom the offence cometh.' If we shall suppose that American 
slavery is one of those offences, which, in the providence of 
God, must needs come, but which, having continued through 
His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives 
to both north and south this terrible war, as the woe due to 
those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any 
departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a 
living God always ascribe to Him ? Fondly do we hope, fer- 
vently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speed- 
ily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the 
wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of 
unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood 
drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the 
sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must 
be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous 
altogether.' With malice toward none, with charity for all, 
with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let 
us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's 
wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and 
for his widow and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and 
cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves, and with 
all nations." 

The triumphant election of Mr. Lincoln, no less than the 
steady progress of the National armies, convinced some of the 
more intelligent of the southern leaders that their cause was 
hopeless, and that it would be prudent to ascertain what terms 
of peace could be made before the utter destruction of their 
military power. There had been already several futile at- 
tempts at opening negotiations ; but they had all failed of 
necessity, because neither side was willing even to consider the 
only terms that the other side would offer. There had never 
been a moment when Mr. Lincoln would have been willing to 
receive propositions of peace on any other basis than the 
recognition of the national integrity, and Mr. Davis steadfastly 
refused to the end to admit the possibility of the restoration of 
the national authority. In July, certain unauthorized persons 
in Canada, having persuaded Horace Greeley that negotiations 
might be opened through them with the Confederate authorities, 



326 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Mr. Lincoln despatched the great editor to Niagara Falls, and 
sent an open letter addressed, "To whom it may concern." 
It is in the possession of Mr. William H. Appleton, of New 
York. This document put an end to the negotiation. The 
Confederate emissaries in Canada and their principals in Rich- 
mond, made no use of this incident except to employ the presi- 
dent's letter as a text for denunciation of the National govern- 
ment. But later in the year, the hopelessness of the struggle 
having become apparent to some of the Confederate leaders, 
Mr. Davis was at last induced to send an embassy to Fortress 
Monroe, to inquire what terms of adjustment were possible. 
They were met by President Lincoln and the secretary of state in 
person. The plan proposed was one that had been suggested, on 
his own responsibility, by Mr. Francis Preston Blair, of Washing- 
ton, in an interview he had been permitted to hold with Mr. 
Davis in Richmond, that the two armies should unite in a cam- 
paign against the French in Mexico for the enforcement of the 
Monroe doctrine, and that the issues of the war should be post- 
poned for future settlement. The president declined perempto- 
rily to entertain this scheme, and repeated again the only condi- 
tions to which he could listen : The restoration of the national 
authority throughout all the states, the maintenance and 
execution of all the acts of the general government in regard 
to slavery, the cessation of hostilities, and the disbanding of 
the insurgent forces as a necessary prerequisite to the ending 
of the war. The Confederate agents reported at Richmond 
the failure of their embassy, and Mr. Davis denounced the 
conduct of President Lincoln in a public address full of des- 
perate defiance. Neverthless, it was evident even to the most 
prejudiced observers that the war could not continue much 
longer. Sherman's march had demonstrated the essential 
weakness of the Confederate cause ; the soldiers of the Confed- 
eracy — who for four years, with the most stubborn gallantry, 
had maintained a losing fight— began to show signs of danger- 
ous discouragement and insubordination ; recruiting had ceased 
some time before, and desertion was going on rapidly. The 
army of Gen. Lee, which was the last bulwark of the Confeder- 
acy, still held its lines stoutly against the gradually enveloping 
lines of Grant; but their valiant commander knew it was only 
a question of how many days he could hold his works, and 
repeatedly counselled the government at Richmond to evacu- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



327 



ate that city, and allow the army to take up a more tenable 
position in the mountains. Gen. Grant's only anxiety each 
morning was lest he should find the army of Gen. Lee moving 
away from him, and late in March he determined to strike the 
final blow at the rebellion. Moving for the last time by the 
left flank, his forces under Sheridan fought and gained a 
brilliant victory over the Confederate left at Five Forks, and 
at the same time Gens. Humphreys, Wright, and Parke moved 
against the Confederate works, breaking their lines and cap- 
turing many prisoners and guns. Petersburg was evacuated 
on 2 April. The Confederate government fled from Richmond 
the same afternoon and evening, and Grant, pursuing the 
broken and shattered remnant of Lee's army, received their sur- 
render at Appomattox Court-House on 9 April. About 28,000 
Confederates signed the parole, and an equal number had been 
killed, captured, and dispersed in the operations immediately 
preceding the surrender. Gen. Sherman, a few days afterward, 
received the surrender of Johnston, and the last Confederate 
army, under Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, west of the Missis- 
sippi, laid down its arms. 

President Lincoln had himself accompanied the army in its 
last triumphant campaign, and had entered Richmond imme- 
diately after its surrender, receiving the cheers and benedic- 
tions not only of the negroes whom he had set free, but of a 
great number of white people, who were weary of the war and 
welcomed the advent of peace. Returning to Washington with 
his mind filled with plans for the restoration of peace and or- 
derly government throughout the south, he seized the occa- / 
sion of a serenade, on 11 April, to deliver to the people who 
gathered in front of the executive mansion his last speech on 
public affairs, in which he discussed with unusual dignity and 
force the problems of reconstruction, then crowding upon 
public consideration. As his second inaugural was the greatest 
of all his rhetorical compositions, so this brief political address, 
which closed his public career, is unsurpassed among his 
speeches for clearness and wisdom, and for a certain tone of 
gentle but unmistakable authority, which shows to what a mas- 
tery of statecraft he had attained. He congratulated the coun- 
try upon the decisive victories of the last week ; he expressly 
asserted that, although he had been present in the final opera- 
tions, "no part of the honor, for plan or execution, was his"; 



^ 



328 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

and then, with equal boldness and discretion, announced the 
principles in accordance with which he should deal with the 
restoration of the states. He refused to be provoked into con- 
troversy, which he held wouJd be purely academic, over the ques- 
tion whether the insurrectionary states were in or out of the 
Union. "As appears to me," he said, "that question has not 
been, nor yet is, a practically material one, and any discussion 
of it, while it thus remains practically immaterial, could have no 
effect other than the mischievous one of dividing our friends. 
As yet, whatever it may hereafter become, that question is bad, 
as the basis of a controversy, and good for nothing at all — a 
merely pernicious abstraction. We all agree that the seceded 
states, so-called, are out of their proper practical relation with 
the Union, and that the sole object of the government, civil and 
military, in regard to those states, is to again get them into 
that proper practical relation. I believe it is not only possible, 
but in fact easier, to do this without deciding, or even consid- 
ering, whether these states have ever been out of the Union 
than with it. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be 
utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let 
us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper 
practical relations between these states and the Union, and 
each forever after innocently indulge his own opinion whether 
in doing the acts he brought the states from without into the 
Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having 
been out of it." In this temper he discussed the recent action 
of the Unionists of Louisiana, where 12,000 voters had sworn 
allegiance, giving his full approval to their course, but not 
committing himself to any similar method in other cases; "any 
exclusive and inflexible plan would surely become a new entan- 
glement. ... If we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost 
to disorganize and disperse them. We, in effect, say to the 
white men, 'You are worthless or worse, we will neither help 
you, nor be helped by you.' To the blacks we say, 'This cup 
of liberty which these, your old masters, hold to your lips, we 
will dash from you and leave you to the chances of gather- 
ing the spilled and scattered contents in some vague and un- 
defined when, where, and how. ... If, on the contrary, we 
sustain the new government of Louisiana, the converse is 
made true. Concede that it is only to what it should be as the 
t%% is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



329 



the egg than by smashing it." These words were the last he 
uttered in public; on 14 April, at a cabinet meeting, he devel- 
oped these views in detail, and found no difference of opinion 
among his advisers. The same evening he attended a perform- 
ance of " Our American Cousin " at Ford's theatre, in Tenth 
street. He was accompanied by Mrs. Lincoln and two friends 
— Miss Harris, a daughter of Senator Ira Harris, of New York, 
and Maj. Henry R. Rathbone. In the midst of the play a shot 
was heard, and a man was seen to leap from the president's 
box to the stage. Brandishing a dripping knife, with which, 
after shooting the president, he had stabbed Maj. Rathbone, 
and shouting, " Sic semper tyrannis ! — the south is avenged ! " 
he rushed to the rear of the building, leaped upon a horse, 
which was held there in readiness for him, and made his escape. 
The president was carried to a small house on the opposite 
side of the street, where, surrounded by his family and the 
principal officers of the government, he breathed his last at 7 
o'clock on the morning of 15 April. The assassin was found 
by a squadron of troops twelve days afterward, and shot in a 
barn in which he had taken refuge. The illustration on page 
319 represents the house where Mr. Lincoln passed away. 

The body of the president lay in state at the Capitol on 20 
April and was viewed by a great concourse of people; the 
next day the funeral train 
set out for Springfield, 111. 
The cortege halted at all the 
principal cities on the way, 
and the remains of the presi- 
dent lay in state in Balti- 
more, Harrisburg, Philadel- 
phia, New York, Albany, 
Buffalo, Cleveland, and Chi- 
cago, being received every- 
where with extraordinary 
demonstrations of respect 
and sorrow. The joy over 
the return of peace was for a fortnight eclipsed by the universal 
grief for the dead leader. He was buried, amid the mourning 
of the whole nation, at Oak Ridge, near Springfield, on 4 May, 
and there on 15 Oct., 1874, an imposing monument — the work 
of the sculptor Larkin G. Mead — was dedicated to his memory. 





330 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



The monument is of white marble, with a portrait-statue of 
Lincoln in bronze, and four bronze groups at the corners, rep- 
resenting the infantry, cavalry, and artillery arms of the service 
and the navy. (See illustration on previous page.) 

The death of President Lincoln, in the moment of the great 
national victory that he had done more than any other to gain,, 
caused a movement of sympathy throughout the world. The 
expressions of grief and condolence that were sent to the gov- 
ernment at Washington, from national, provincial, and munici- 
pal bodies all over the globe, were afterward published by the 
state department in a quarto volume of nearly a thousand 
pages, called " The Tribute of the Nations to Abraham Lin- 
coln." After the lapse of thirty years, the high estimate of 
him that the world appears instinctively to have formed at the 
moment of his death seems to have been increased rather than 
diminished, as his participation in the great events of his time 
has been more thoroughly studied and understood. His good- 
ness of heart, his abounding charity, his quick wit and over- 
flowing humor, which made him the hero of many true stories 
and a thousand legends, are not less valued in themselves ; 
but they are cast in the shade by the evidences that continually 
appear of his extraordinary qualities of mind and of character. 
His powerful grasp of details, his analytic capacity, his unerring 
logic, his perception of human nature, would have made him 
unusual in any age of the world, while the quality that, in the 
opinion of many, made him the specially fitted agent of Provi- 
dence in the salvation of the country, his absolute freedom 
from prejudice or passion in weighing the motives of his con- 
temporaries and the deepest problems of state gives him pre- 
eminence even among the illustrious men that have preceded 
and followed him in his great office. Simple and modest as he 
was in his demeanor, he was one of the most self-respecting 
of rulers. Although his kindness of heart was proverbial, 
although he was always glad to please and unwilling to offend, 
few presidents have been more sensible of the dignity of their 
office, and more prompt to maintain it against encroachments. 
He was at all times unquestionably the head of the government, 
and though not inclined to interfere with the routine business 
of the departments, he tolerated no insubordination in impor- 
tant matters. At one time, being conscious that there^was an 
effort inside of his government to force the resignation of one 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. -i-i^ 

of its members, he read in open cabinet a severe reprimand of 
what was going on, mentioning no names, and ordering per- 
emptorily that no question should be asked, and no allusions 
be made to the incident then or thereafter. He did not except 
his most trusted friends or his most powerful generals from this 
strict subordination. When Mr. Seward went before him to 
meet the Confederate envoys at Hampton Roads, Mr. Lincoln 
gave him this written injunction: "You will not assume to 
definitely consummate anything " ; and on 3 March, 1865, when 
Gen. Grant was about to set out on his campaige of final vic- 
tory, the secretary of war gave him, by the president's order, 
this imperative instruction : "The president directs me to say 
to you that he wishes you to have no.conference with Gen. Lee, 
unless it be for the capitulation of Gen. Lee's army, or on some 
other minor and purely military matter. He instructs me to 
say that you are not to decide, discuss, or to confer upon any 
political question. Such questions the president holds in his 
own hands, and will submit them to no military conferences or 
conventions. Meanwhile, you are to press to the utmost your 
military advantages." When he refused to comply with the 
desire of the more radical Republicans in congress to take 
Draconian measures of retaliation against the Confederates for 
their treatment of black soldiers, he was accused by them of 
weakness and languor. They never seemed to perceive that 
to withstand an angry congress in Washington required more 
vigor of character than to launch a threatening decree against 
the Confederate government in Richmond. Mr. Lincoln was 
as unusual in personal appearance as in character. His stature 
was almost gigantic, six feet and four inches; he was muscular 
but spare of frame, weighing about 180 pounds. His hair was 
strong and luxuriant in growth, and stood out straight from 
his head; it began to be touched with gray in his last years. 
His eyes, a grayish brown, were deeply set, and were filled, in 
repose, with an expression of profound melancholy, which 
easily changed to one of uproarious mirth at the provocation 
of a humorous anecdote, told by himself or another. His nose 
was long and slightly curved, his mouth large and singularly 
mobile. Up to the time of his election he was clean-shaven, 
but during his presidency the fine outline of his face was 
marred by a thin and straggling beard. His demeanor was, in 
general, extremely simple and careless, but he was not without 



332 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

a native dignity that always protected him from anything like 
presumption or impertinence. 

Mr. Lincoln married, on 4 Nov., 1842, Miss Mary Todd, 
daughter of Robert S. Todd, of Kentucky. There were born 
of this marriage four sons. One, Edward Baker, died in in- 
fancy; another, William Wallace, died at the age of twelve, 
during the presidency of Mr. Lincoln ; and still another, 
Thomas, at the age of eighteen, several years after his father's 
death. The only one that grew to maturity was his eldest son, 
Robert, who married and has children. The house in which 
Mr. Lincoln lived when he was elected president, in Spring- 
field, 111., was conveyed to the state of Illinois in 1887 by his 
son, and a collection of memorials of him is to be preserved 
there perpetually. (See illustration on page 304.) 

There were few portraits of Mr. Lincoln painted in his life- 
time ; the vast number of engravings that have made his face 
one of the most familiar of all time have been mostly copied 
from photographs. The one on page 301 is from a photograph 
taken in 1858. There are portraits from life by Frank B. Car- 
penter, by Matthew Wilson, by Thomas Hicks, and an excellent 
crayon drawing by Barry. Since his death G. P. A. Healy, Wil- 
liam Page, and others have painted portraits of him. There 
are two authentic life-masks: one made in 1858 by Leonard 
W. Volk (see illustration on page 324), who also executed a 
bust of Mr. Lincoln before kis election in i860, and another by 
Clark Mills shortly before the assassination. There are already 
a number of statues: one by Henry Kirke Brown in Union 
square. New York (see page 312); another by the same artist 
in Brooklyn ; one in the group called " Emancipation," by 
Thomas Ball, in Lmcoln Park, Washington, D. C, a work 
which has especial interest as having been paid for by the con- 
tributions of the freed people; one by Mrs. Vinnie Ream Hoxie 
in the Capitol; one by Augustus St. Gaudens in Chicago, set 
up in Chicago, 22 Oct., 1887 ; and one by Randolph Rogers in 
Fairmount Park, Philadelphia (see illustration on page 315). 
There is a bust by Thomas D. Jones, modelled from life in i860. 

The Lincoln bibliography is enormous, comprising thou- 
sands of volumes. See John Russell Bartlett's " Catalogue of 
Books and Pamphlets relating to the Civil War in the United 
States" (Boston, 1866). The most noteworthy of the lives of 
Lincoln already published are those of Joseph H. Barrett 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



333 



(Cincinnati, 1865); Linus P. Brockett (Philadelphia, 1865); 
Henry J. Raymond (New York, 1865) ; Josiah G. Holland 
(Springfield, Mass.. 1866) ; Ward H. Lamon (only the first vol- 
ume, Boston, 1872); William O. Stoddard (New York, 1884); 
Isaac N. Arnold (Chicago, 1885); William H. Herndon (New 
York, 1889); and John T. Morse, Jr. (Boston, 1893). Briefer 
lives have also been written by William D. Howells, Mrs. Har- 
riet Beecher Stowe, Charles G. Leland, John Carroll Power, 
Carl Schurz, and others. The most extensive work upon his 
life and times yet attempted is by his private secretaries, 
John G. Nicolay and John Hay, m ten volumes (New York, 
1890.) Four years later the same writers prepared a com- 
plete edition in two volumes of Lmcoln's Works, comprismg 
his Speeches, Letters, State Papers, and Miscellaneous Writ- 
ings (New York, 1894). 



His wife, M.arv Todd, born in Lexington, Ky., 12 Dec, 
1818; died in Springfield, 111., 16 July, 1882, was the daughter 
,of Robert S. Todd, whose family were among the most influ- 
ential of the pioneers of Kentucky and Illinois. Her great- 
uncle, John Todd, was one of the associates of Gen. George 
Rogers Clark, in his campaign of 1778, and took part in the 
capture of Kaskaskia and Vincennes. Being appointed county 
lieutenant by Patrick Henry, at that time governor of Virginia, 
he organized the civil government of what became afterward 
the state of Illinois. He was killed in 
the battle of Blue Licks, 18 Aug., 1782, 
of which his brother Levi, Mrs. Lin- 
coln's grandfather, who also accom- 
panied Clark's expedition as a lieuten- 
ant, was one of the few survivors. Mary 
Todd was carefully educated in Lexing- 
ton. When twenty-one years of age 
she went to Springfield to visi't her sis- 
ter, who had married Ninian W. Ed- 
wards, a son of Xinian Edwards, gov- ^^ ^jf 
ernor of the state. While there she be- ^^^^'^-^ <^^^r^:.^>^ 
came engaged to Mr. Lincoln, whom 

she married, 4 Nov., 1842. Her family was divided by the civil 
war; several of them were killed in battle; and devoted as 
Mrs. Lincoln was to her husband and the National cause, this 




334 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



division among her nearest kindred caused her much suffering. 
The death of her son, William Wallace, in 1862, was an endur- 
ing sorrow to her. One of her principal occupations was visit- 
ing the hospitals and camps of the soldiers about Washington. 
She never recovered from the shock of seeing her husband 
shot down before her eyes; her youngest son, Thomas, died a 
few years later, and her reason suffered from these repeated 
blows. She lived in strict retirement during her later years, 
spending part of her time with her son in Chicago, a portion in 
Europe, and the rest with her sister, Mrs. Edwards, in Spring- 
field, Illinois, where she died of paralysis. 




Their son, Robert Todd, lawyer, born in Springfield, 111., 
I Aug., 1843, was prepared for college at Phillips Exeter 
academy, and graduated at Harvard 
in 1864. He entered Harvard law- 
school, but after a short stay applied 
for admission to the military service, 
and his father suggested his appoint- 
ment on the staff of Gen. Grant, as a 
volunteer aide-de-camp without pay 
or allowances. This exceptional posi- 
tion did not meet with Gen. Grant's 
approval, and at his suggestion young 
Lincoln was regularly commissioned 
(5\~^^ /\ as a captain, and entered the service 
^ oTkOtI^ on the same footing with others of his 
grade. He served with zeal and effi- 
ciency throughout the final campaign, which ended at Appo- 
mattox. At the close of the war he resumed the study of law, 
was admitted to the bar in Illinois, and practised his profes- 
sion with success in Chicago until 1881, with an interval of a 
visit to Europe in 1872 ; he steadily refused the offers that 
were repeatedly made him to enter public life, though taking 
part, from time to time, in political work and discussion. In 
1881, at the invitation of President Garfield, he entered his 
cabinet as secretary of war. Mr. Lincoln, who, sixteen years 
before, had returned from the field just in time to stand by the 
death-bed of his father, assassinated while president, now had 
his strange experience repeated upon the assassination of Presi- 
dent Garfield, a few months after his inauguration. On the 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



335 



accession of Vice-President Arthur to the Presidency, Mr. Lin- 
coln was the only member of the former cabinet who was re- 
quested to retain his portfolio, and he did so to the end of the 
administration. He performed the duties of the place with 
such ability and fairness, and with such knowledge of the law 
and appreciation of the needs of the army, as to gain the 
warmest approbation of its officers and its friends. Note- 
worthy incidents of his administration of the civil duties of 
the department were his report to the house of representa- 
tives upon its challenge to him to justify President Arthur's 
veto of the river and harbor bill of 1882, and the thoroughness 
and promptness of the relief given, from Wheeling to New 
Orleans, to those suffering from the great floods of the Ohio 
and Mississippi rivers in February, 1884. In the latter year Mr. 
Lincoln was prominently spoken of for the presidency ; but as 
President Arthur was a candidate before the Republican conven- 
tion, Lincoln refused to allow his name to be presented for either 
place on the ticket. He returned to Chicago, and in the spring 
of 1889 he was appointed minister to Great Britain. He was 
succeeded in June, 1893, by Thomas F. Bayard, of Delaware, 
as ambassador, and resumed his law practice in Chicago. 



ANDREW JOHNSON. 

Andrew Johnson, seventeenth president of the United 
States, born in Raleigh, N. C, 29 Dec, 1808 ; died near Carter's 
Station, Tenn., 31 July, 1875. His parents were very poor, 
and when he was four years old his father died of injuries re- 
ceived in saving another from drowning. At the age of ten 
Andrew was apprenticed to a tailor. A natural craving to 
learn was fostered by hearing a gentleman read from " The 
American Speaker." The boy was taught the alphabet by 
•/ fellow-workmen, borrowed the book and learned to read. In 
1824 he removed to Laurens Court-House, S. C, where he 
worked as a journeyman tailor. The illustration on page 337 
represents the small shop in which he pursued the calling that 
is announced on the sign over the door. In May, 1826, he re- 
turned to Raleigh, and in September, with his mother and step- 
father, he set out in a two-wheeled cart, drawn by a blind pony, 
for Greenville, Tenn. Here he married Eliza McCardle, a 
woman of refinement, who taught him to write, and read to 
him while he was at work during the day. It was not until he 
had been in congress that he learned to write with ease. From 
Greenville he went to the west, but returned after the lapse of 
a year. In those days Tennessee was controlled by landholders, 
whose interests were fostered by the state constitution, and 
Greenville was ruled by what was called an " aristocratic co- 
terie of the quality." Johnson resisted their supremacy, and 
made himself a leader of the opposition. In 1828 he was 
elected alderman, in 1829 and 1830 was re-elected, and in 1830 
was advanced to the mayoralty, which office he held for three 
years. In 1831 the county court appointed him a trustee of 
Rhea academy, and about this time he took part in the debates 
of a society at Greenville college. In 1834 he advocated the 
adoption of the new state constitution, by which the influence 



ANDRE IV JOHNSON. 



337 



of the large landholders was abridged. In 1835 he represented 
Greene and Washington counties in the legislature. He resisted 
the popular mania for internal improvements, which caused his 
defeat in 1837, but the reaction justified his foresight, strength- 
ened his influence, and restored his popularity. In 1839 he 
was returned. In 1836 he supported Hugh L. White for the 
presidency, and was a Bell man in the warm personal and 
political altercations between John Bell and James K. Polk, 
which distracted Tennessee at this time. Johnson was the only 
ardent follower of Bell that failed to go over to the Whig party. 
In 1840 he was an elector for the state-at-large on Van Buren's 
ticket, and made a state reputation by the force of his oratory. 
In 1841 he was elected to the state senate from Greene and 
Hawkins counties, and while in that body he was one of the 
"immortal 13" Democrats who, having it in their power to 
prevent the election of a Whig senator, did so by refusing to 
meet the house in joint convention. He also proposed that 
the basis of representation should rest upon the white votes, 
without regard to the ownership of slaves. 

In 1843 he was elected to congress over John A. Asken, a 
U. S. bank Democrat, who was supported by the Whigs. His 
first speech was in support of the 
resolution to restore to Gen. Jack- 
son the fine imposed upon him at 
New Orleans. He supported the 
annexation of Texas. In 1845 he 
was re-elected, and sustained Polk's 
administration. He opposed all ex- 
penditures for internal improve- 
ments that were not general, and 
resisted and defeated the proposed 
contingent tax of ten per cent, on 
tea and coffee. He was regularly 
re-elected until 1853. During this 
period he made his celebrated de- 
fence of the veto power, and urged the adoption of the home- 
stead law, which was obnoxious to the slave-holding power of 
the south. He supported the compromise measures of 1850 as 
a matter of expediency, but opposed compromises in general 
as a sacrifice of principle. In 1853 the district lines were so 
"gerrymandered " as to throw him into a district in which the 




338 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

Whigs had an overwhelming majority. Johnson at once an- 
nounced himself a candidate for the governorship, and was 
elected by a fair majority. In his message to the legislature 
he dwelt upon the homestead law and other measures for the 
benefit of the working-classes, and earned the title of the " me- 
chanic governor." He opposed the Know-nothing movement 
with characteristic vehemence. In 1S55 he was opposed by 
Meredith P. Gentry, the Whig candidate, and defeated him after 
a canvass remarkable for the feeling displayed. Mr. Johnson 
earnestly supported the Kansas-Nebraska bill. 

In 1857 he was elected to the U. S. senate, where be urged 
the passage of the homestead bill, and on 20 May, 1858, made 
his greatest speech on this subject. Finally, in i860, he had 
the momentary gratification of seeing his favorite bill pass both 
houses of congress, but President Buchanan vetoed it, and the 
veto was sustained. Johnson revived it at the next session, 
and also introduced a resolution looking to a retrenchment in 
the expenditures of the government, and on constitutional 
grounds opposed the grant of aid for the construction of a 
Pacific railroad. He was prominent in debate, and frequently 
clashed with southern supporters of the administration. His 
pronounced Unionism estranged him from the slave-holders 
on the one side, while his acceptance of slavery as an institution 
guaranteed by the constitution caused him to hold aloof from 
the Republicans on the other. This intermediate position 
suggested his availability as a popular candidate for the presi- 
dency ; but in the Democratic convention he received only the 
vote of Tennessee, and when the convention reassembled in 
Baltimore he withdrew his name. In the canvass that fol- 
lowed, he supported the extreme pro-slavery candidate, Breck- 
inridge. Johnson had never believed it possible that any 
organized attempt to dissolve the Union could be made; 
but the events preceding the session of congress beginning in 
December, i860, convinced him of his error. When congress 
met, he took decided and unequivocal grounds in opposition 
to secession, and on 13 Dec. introduced a joint resolution, 
proposing to amend the constitution so as to elect the presi- 
dent and vice-president by district votes, to elect senators by 
a direct popular vote, and to limit the terms of P'ederal 
judges to twenty years, half of them to be from slave-holding 
and half from non-slave-holding states. In his speech on this 



'-iE'B^ 



ANDREW JOHNSON. 33Q 

resolution, 18 and 19 Dec, he declared his unyielding oppo- 
sition to secession and announced his intention to stand by 
and act in and under the constitution. The southern states 
were then in the act of seceding, and every word uttered in 
congress was read and discussed with eagerness by thirty mil- 
lions of people. Johnson's speech, coming from a southern 
man, thrilled the popular heart ; but his popularity in the north 
was offset by the virulence with which he was assailed in the 
south. In a speech delivered 2 March, 1861, he said, referring 
to the secessionists : " I would have them arrested and tried for 
treason, and, if convicted, by the eternal God, they should 
suffer the penalty of the law at the hands of the executioner." 
Returning to Tennessee from Washington, he was attacked at 
Liberty, Va., by a mob, but drove them back with his pistol. 
At Lynchburg he was hooted and hissed, and at various places 
burned in effigy. He attended the East Tennessee union con- 
vention, in Cincinnati, 30 May, and again on 19 June he visited 
the same place and was received with enthusiasm. Here he 
declared for a vigorous prosecution of the war. 

He retained his seat in the senate until appointed by Presi- 
dent Lincoln military governor of Tennessee, 4 March, 1862, 
On 12 March he reached Nashville, and organized a provisional 
government for the state. On 18 March he issued a proclama- 
tion, in which he appealed to the people to return to their alle- 
giance, to uphold the law, and to accept "a full and competent 
amnesty for all past acts and declarations." He required the 
city council to take the oath of allegiance to the United States. 
They refused, and he removed them and appointed others. He 
urged the holding of Union meetings throughout the state, and 
frequently attended them in person. It was chiefly due to his 
courage that Nashville was held against a Confederate force. 
He completed the railroad from Nashville to Tennessee river, 
and raised 25 regiments for service in the state. On 8 Dec, 
1862, he issued a proclamation ordering congressir -il elec- 
tions, and on the 15th levied an assessment upon .le richer 
southern sympathizers, '' in behalf of the many helf s widows, 
wives, and children in the city of Nashville w' have been 
reduced to poverty and wretchedness in consey .nee of their 
husbands, sons, and fathers having been forced/ ito the armies 
of this unholy and nefarious rebellion." Oif 20 Feb., 1863, 
Gov. Johnson issued a proclamation warning the agents of all 
23 



340 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



" traitors " to retain their collections until some person should 
be appointed to receive them for the United States. During 
the term of his service, Gov. Johnson exercised absolute and 
autocratic powers, but with singular moderation and discretion, 
and his course strengthened the Union cause in Tennessee. 
The Republican convention assembled in Baltimore, 6 June, 

1864, and renominated Mr. Lincoln for the presidency by 
acclamation. There was a strong sentiment in favor of recog- 
nizing the political sacrifices made for the cause of the Union 
by the war Democrats, and it was generally conceded that 
New York should decide who was to be the individual. Daniel 
S. Dickinson, of that state, was most prominent in this conec- 
tion ; but internal factional divisions made it impossible for 
him to obtain the solid vote of that state, and Sec. Seward's 
friends feared this nomination would force him from the 
cabinet. Henry J. Raymond urged the name of Andrew 
Johnson, and he was accordingly selected. Johnson, in his 
letter of acceptance, virtually disclaimed any departure from 
his principles as a Democrat, but placed his acceptance upon 
the ground of "the higher duty of first preserving the govern- 
ment." He accepted the emancipation proclamation as a war 
measure, to be subsequently ratified by constitutional amend- 
ment. In his inaugural address as vice-president, 4 March, 

1865, a lack of dignity in his bearing and an incoherency in his 
speech were attributed to the influence of strong drink. As a 
matter of fact, the Vice-President was much worn by disease, 
and had taken a little stimulant to aid him in the ordeal of 
inauguration, and in his weakened condition the effect was 
much more decided than he anticipated. This explanation 
was very generally accepted by the country. 

On 14 April, 1865, President Lincoln was assassinated, and 
Mr. Johnson was at once sworn in as president, at his rooms in 
the Kirkwood house, by Chief-Justice Chase. In his remarks 
to those present Mr. Johnson said : " As to an indication of any 
policy which may be pursued by me in the administration of 
the government, I have to say that that must be left for 
development as the administration progresses. The message 
or declaration must be made by the acts as they transpire. The 
only assurance I can now give of the future is reference to the 
past." In his addresses to various delegations that called upon 
him, he emphasized the fact that he advocated a course of for- 



ANDREW JOHNSON. 34! 

bearance toward the mass of the southern people, but demand- 
ed punishment for those who had been leaders. " Treason is a 
crime," he said to the Illinois delegation, " and must be pun- 
ished." At the time it was generally supposed that Johnson, 
who was known to be personally embittered against the 
dominant classes in the south, would inaugurate a reign of 
terror and decimate those who had taken up arms against the 
national authority. His protest against the terms of surrender 
granted to Gen. Lee by Gen. Grant, and utterances in private 
conversation, strengthened the fear that he would be too bloody 
and vindictive. He was supposed not to have been in accord 
with the humane policy that Lincoln had foreshadowed, and 
his silence in reference to Lincoln's policy, which amounted to 
ignoring it, was accepted as a proof that he did not intend to 
follow this course. On one occasion he said : " In regard to 
my future course, I will now make no professions, no pledges." 
And again : " My past life, especially my course during the 
present unholy rebellion, is before you. I have no principles 
to retract. I defy any one to point to any of my public acts 
at variance with the fixed principles which have guided me 
through life." It was evident that the difference in views of 
public policy, which were kept in abeyance during the war, 
would now come to the surface. The surrender of Gen. Joseph 
E. Johnston's army, 26 April, 1865, was practically the end of the 
war (although 20 Aug., 1866, was officially fixed as the close of 
the civil war by the second section of the act of 2 March, 1867), 
and on 29 April President Johnson issued a proclamation for 
the removal of trade restrictions in most of the insurrectionary 
states, which, being in contravention of an act of congress, was 
subsequently modified. On 9 May, 1865, he issued a proclama- 
tion restoring Virginia to the Union, and on 22 May all ports 
except four in Texas were opened to foreign commerce. On 
29 May a general amnesty was declared to all except fourteen 
specified classes of citizens. Among the number excepted were 
" (all participants in the rebellion the estimated value of whose 
taxable property is over twenty thousand dollars." This excep- 
tion was undoubtedly the result of personal feeling on the part 
of the president. It began to be perceived that a change was 
taking place in his sentiments, and this was attributed to the 
influence of Sec. Seward, who was popularly supposed to 
perpetuate the humane spirit of the dead president. Those 



342 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



who had fears of too great severity now anticipated too great 
leniency. After the amnesty proclamation, the fundamental 
and irreconcilable difference between President Johnson and 
the party that had elevated him to power became more apparent. 
The constitution made no provision for the readmission of a 
state that had withdrawn from the Union, and Mr. Johnson, as 
a state-rights Democrat, held that the southern states had 
never been out of the Union; that the leaders were solely re- 
sponsible ; that as soon as the seceded states applied for 
readmission under such a form of government as complied 
with the requirements of the constitution, the Federal govern- 
ment had no power to refuse them admission, or to make any 
conditions upon subjects over which the constitution had not 
expressly given congress jurisdiction. The Republican leaders 
held that the action of the seceded states had deprived them of 
their rights as members of the Union ; that in any event they 
were conquered, and as such at the mercy of the conqueror; 
and that, at best, they stood in the category of territories seek- 
ing admission to the Union, in which case congress could admit 
or reject them at will. The particular question that brought on 
a clash between these principles was the civil status of the 
negro. The 13th amendment became a law, 18 Dec, 1865, 
with Johnson's concurrence. The Republicans held that 
slavery had been the cause of the war; that only by giving the 
freedman the right to vote could he be protected, and the 
results of the war secured ; and that no state should be ad- 
mitted until it had granted the right of suffrage to the negroes 
within its borders. Johnson held this to be a matter of internal 
regulation, beyond the control of congress. From 9 May till 
13 July he appointed provisional governors for seven states, 
whose duties were to reorganize the governments. The state 
governments were organized, but passed such stringent laws in 
reference to the negroes that the Republicans declared it was a 
worse form of slavery than the old. When congress met in 
December, 1865, it was overwhelmingly Republican and firmly 
determined to protect the negro against outrage and oppression. 
The first breach between the president and the party in power 
was the veto of the freedman's bureau bill in February, 1866, 
which was designed to protect the negroes. One of the grounds 
of the veto was, that it had been passed by a congress in 
which the southern states had no representatives. On 27 



ANDREW JOHNSON. 343 

March the president vetoed the civil rights bill, which made 
freedmen citizens without the right of suffrage. The chief 
ground of objection was the interference with the rights of the 
states. This bill was passed over the veto. 

On 16 June the 14th amendment to the constitution, which 
contained the principle of the civil rights bill, was proposed, 
disapproved by the president, but ratified and declared in 
force, 28 July, 1868. Both houses of congress passed a joint 
resolution that the delegation from a state lately in rebellion 
should not be received by either the senate or the house until 
both united in declaring said state a member of the Union. 
In July the second freedman's bureau bill was passed, vetoed, 
and passed over the veto. In June, 1866, the Republicans m 
congress brought forward their plan of reconstruction, which was 
called the "congressional plan," m contradistinction to the 
president's plan, of which he spoke as "my policy." The chief 
features of the congressional plan were, to give the negroes 
the right to vote, to protect them in this right, and to prevent 
the Confederate leaders from voting. Congress met on 3 Dec, 

1866. The bill giving negroes the right of suffrage in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia was passed over a veto. An attempt was 
made to impeach the president, but it failed. In January, 

1867, a bill was passed to deprive the president of the power to 
proclaim general amnesty, which he disregarded. Measures 
were adopted looking to the meeting of the 40th and all subse- 
quent congresses immediately upon the adjournment of the 
predecessor. The president was deprived of the command of 
the army by a " rider " to the army appropriation bill, which 
provided that his orders should only be given through the gen- 
eral, who was not to be removed without the previous consent 
of the senate. The bill admitting Nebraska provided that no 
law should ever be passed in that state denying the right of 
suffrage to any person because of his color or race. This was 
vetoed, and passed over the veto. On 2 March, 1867, the "bill 
to provide efficient governments for the insurrectionary states," 
which embodied the congressional plan of reconstruction, was 
passed, vetoed, and passed over the veto. This divided the 
southern states into military districts, each under a brigadier- 
general, who was to preserve order and exercise all the func- 
tions of government until the citizens had formed a state gov- 
ernment, ratified the amendments, and been admitted to the 



344 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

Union. On 2 March, 1867, the tenure-of-office bill was passed 
over the veto. This provided that civil officers should remain 
in office until the confirmation of their successors; that the 
members of the cabinet should be removed only with the con- 
sent of the senate; and that when congress was not in session, 
the president could suspend, but not remove, any official, and 
in case the senate at the next session should not ratify the 
suspension, the suspended official should be reinducted into his 
office. The elections of 1866 were uniformly favorable to the 
Republicans, and gave them a two-third majority in both house 
and senate. On 5 Aug., 1867, the president requested Edwin 
M. Stanton to resign his office as secretary of war. Mr. Stan- 
ton refused, was suspended, and Gen. Grant was appointed in 
his place. When congress met, it refused to ratify the sus- 
pension. Gen. Grant then resigned, and Mr. Stanton again 
entered upon the duties of his office. The president removed 
him, and appointed Lorenzo Thomas, adjutant-general, U. S. 
army. The senate declared this act illegal, and Mr. Stanton 
refused to comply, and notified the speaker of the house. On 
24 Feb., 1868, the house passed a resolution for the imoeach- 
ment oi the president. The trial began on 5 March. The 
main articles of impeachment were for violating the provisions 
of the tenure-of-office act, which it was claimed he had done 
in order to test its constitutionality. After the trial began, 
the president made a tour through the northwest, which was 
called " swinging round the circle," because in his speeches he 
declared that he had swung around the entire circle of offices, 
from alderman to president. He made many violent and intem- 
perate speeches to the crowds that assembled to meet him, and 
denounced the congress then sitting as "no congress," because 
of its refusal to admit the representatives and senators from 
the south, and on these speeches were based additional articles 
of impeachment. On 16 May the test vote was had. Thirty-five 
senators were for conviction and nineteen for acquittal. A 
change of one vote would have carried conviction. The senate 
adjourned sine die, and a verdict of acquittal was entered. 
After the expiration of his term the president returned to Ten- 
nessee. He was a candidate for the U. S. senate, but was 
defeated. In 1872 he was a candidate for congressman from 
the state-at-large, and, though defeated, he regained his hold 
upon the people of the state, and in January, 1875, was elected 



ANDREW JOHA'SON. 



345 



to the senate, taking his seat at the extra session of 1875. 
Two weeks after the session began he made a speech which 
was a skilful but bitter attack upon Gen. Grant. He returned 
home at the end of the session, and in July visited his daughter, 
who lived near Carter's station in east Tennessee. There he 
was stricken with paralysis, 29 July, and died the next day. 
He was buried at Greenville. His "Speeches" were published 
with a biographical introduction by Frank Moore (Boston, 
1865), and his " Life and Times " were written by the late John 
Savage (New York, 1866). See also "The Tailor Boy" (Bos- 
ton, 1865), and "The Trial of Andrew Johnson on Impeach- 
ment" (3 vols., Washington, 1868). 



His wife, Eliza McCardle, b. in Leesburg, Washington 
CO., Tenn., 4 Oct., 1810; d. in Home, Greene co., Tenn., 15 Jan., 
1876, was the only daughter of a widow in Greenville, Tenn. 
On 27 May, 1826, she married Andrew Johnson, and devoted 
herself to his interest and education, 
contributing effectually toward his fu- 
ture career. She remained in Green- 
ville while he served in the legislature, 
and in 1861 spent two months in Wash- 
ington while Mr. Johnson' was in the 
senate. Owing to impaired health she 
returned to Greenville, and while there 
received an order, dated 24 April, 1862, 
requiring her to pass beyond the Con- 
federate lines through Nashville in 
thirty-six hours. This was impossible, 
owmg to her illness, and she therefore 
remained in Greenville all summer, hearing constantly rumors 
of Mr. Johnson's murder. In September she applied for per- 
mission to cross the line, and, accompanied by her children and 
Mr. Daniel Stover, she began her journey to Nashville. At 
Murfreesboro they were met by Gen. Forrest, who detained 
them until Isham G. Harris and Andrew Ewing obtained per- 
mission from the authorities at Richmond for them to pass. 
Mrs. Johnson joined her husband at Nashville. During her 
residence in Washington Mrs. Johnson appeared in society as 
little as possible. 




^/Ci^ayyo--^z^>Tyi-cryT^ 






346 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Their daughter, Martha, born in Greenville, Tenn., 25 
Oct., 1828, was educated in Georgetown, D. C., and during her 
school-life was a frequent guest in the White House in Presi- 
dent Polk's administration. She returned to east Tennessee in 
1851, and on 13 Dec, 1857, married Judge David T. Patterson. 
She presided at the White House in place of her invalid mother, 
and, with her sister, assisted in the first reception that was 
held by President Johnson, i Jan., 1866. During the early 
sprmg an appropriation of $30,000 was made by congress to 
refurnish the executive mansion, and Mrs. Patterson super- 
intended the purchases. Another daughter, Mary, born in 
Greenville, Tenn., 8 May, 1832 ; died in Bluff City, Tenn., 19 
April, 1883, married Daniel Stover, of Carter county, who died 
in 1862, and in 1869 she married William R. Brown, of Green- 
ville, Tenn. The president had three sons, Charles {1830- 
'63), Robert (i834-'69), who was his secretary, and Andrew 
(i852-'79). 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 

Ulysses Simpson Grant, eighteenth president of the United 
States, born at Point Pleasant, Clermont co., Ohio, 27 April, 
1822; died on Mount McGregor, near Saratoga, N. Y., 23 July, 
1885. (See view of Grant's birthplace on the next page.) He 
was of Scottish ancestry, but his family had been American in 
all its branches for eight generations. He was a descendant of 
Matthew Grant, who arrived at Dorchester, Mass., in May, 1630. 
His father was Jesse R. Grant, and his mother Hannah Simpson. 
They were married in June, 1821, in Clermont county, Ohio. 
Ulysses, the oldest of six children, spent his boyhood in assist- 
ing his father on the farm, a work more congenial to his tastes 
than working in the tannery of which his father was proprietor. 
He attended the village school, and in the spring of 1839 was 
appointed to a cadetship in the U. S. military academy by 
Thomas L. Hamer, M. C. The name given him at birth was 
Hiram Ulysses, but he was always called by his middle name. 
Mr. Hamer, thinking this his first name, and that his middle 
name was probably that of his mother's family, inserted in the 
official appointment the name of Ulysses S. The ofificials at 
West Point were notified by Cadet Grant of the error, but they 
did not feel authorized to correct it, and it was acquiesced in 
and became the name by which he was always known. As a 
student Grant showed the greatest proficiency in mathematics, 
but he gained a fair standing in most of his studies, and at 
cavalry-drill he proved himself the best horseman in his class, 
and afterward was one of the best in the army. He was 
graduated in 1843, standing twenty-first in a class of thirty- 
nine. He was commissioned, on graduation, as a brevet 2d 
lieutenant, and was attached to the 4th infantry and assigned to 
duty at Jefferson barracks, near St. Louis. (See portrait taken 
at this period on page 352.) In May, 1844, he accompanied 



348 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



his regiment to Camp Salubrity, Louisiana. He was commis- 
sioned 2d lieutenant in September, 1845. That month he went 
with his regiment to Corpus Christi (now in Texas) to join the 
army of occupation, under command of Gen. Zachary Taylor. 

He participated in the battle of Palo Alto, 8 May, 1846; 
and in that of Resaca de la Palma, 9 May, he commanded his 
company. On 19 Aug. he set out with the army for Monterey, 
Mexico, which was reached on 19 Sept. He had been appointed 
regimental quartermaster of the 4th infantry, and was placed 
in charge of the wagons and pack-train on this march. Dur- 
ing the assault of the 21st on Black Fort, one of the works 
protecting Monterey, instead of remaining in camp in charge 
of the quartermaster's stores, he charged with his regiment, on 
horseback, being almost the only officer in the regiment that 
was mounted. The adjutant was killed in the charge, and 

Lieut. Grant was des- 
fe:^<- - ignated to take his 

place. On the 23d, 
when the troops had 
gained a position in 
the city of Monterey, 
a volunteer was called 
for, to make his way 
to the rear under a 
heavy fire, to order up 
ammunition, Lieut. 
Grant volunteered, and ran the gantlet in safety, accomplishing 
his mission. Garland's brigade, to which the 4th infantry be- 
longed, was transferred from Twiggs's to Worth's division, and 
ordered back to the mouth of the Rio Grande, where it embarked 
for Vera Cruz, to join the army under Gen. Scott. It landed near 
that city on 9 March, 1847, and the investment was immediately 
begun. Lieut. Grant served with his regiment during the siege, 
until the capture of the place, 29 March, 1847. On 13 April his 
division began its march toward the city of Mexico ; and he 
participated in the battle of Cerro Gordo, 17 and 18 April. The 
troops entered Pueblo on 15 May, and Lieut. Grant was there 
ordered to take charge of a large train of wagons, with an 
escort of fewer than a thousand men, to obtain forage. He 
made a two days' march, and procured the necessary supplies. 
He participated in the capture of San Antonio and the battle of 




:"^iS'- 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 



349 



Churubusco, 20 Aug., and the battle of Molino del Rey, 8 Sept., 
1847. In the latter engagement he was with the first troops 
that entered the mills. Seeing some of the enemy on the top 
of a building, he took a few men, climbed to the roof, received 
the surrender of six officers and quite a number of men. For 
this service he was brevetted a ist lieutenant. He was engaged 
in the storming of Chapultepec on 13 Sept., distinguished him- 
self by conspicuous services, was highly commended in the 
reports of his superior officers, and brevetted captain. While 
the troops were advancing against the city of Mexico on the 
14th, observing a church from the top of which he believed the 
enemy could be dislodged from a defensive work, he called for 
volunteers, and with twelve men of the 4th infantry, who were 
afterward joined by a detachment of artillery, he made a flank 
movement, gained the church, mounted a howitzer in the 
belfry, using it with such effect that Gen. Worth sent for him 
and complimented him in person. He entered the city of 
Mexico with the army, 14 Sept., and a few days afterward was 
promoted to be ist lieutenant. He remained with the army in 
the city of Mexico till the withdrawal of the troops in the sum- 
mer of 1848, and then accompanied his regiment to Pascagoula, 
Miss. He there obtained leave of absence and went to St. 
Louis, where, on 22 Aug., 1848, he married Miss Julia B. Dent, 
sister of one of his classmates. He was soon afterward ordered 
to Sackett's Harbor, N. Y., and in April following to Detroit, 
Mich. In the spring of 185 1 he was again transferred to 
Sackett's Harbor, and on 5 July, 1852, he sailed from New 
York with his regiment for California via the Isthmus of 
Panama. While the troops were crossing the isthmus, cholera 
carried off one seventh of the command. Lieut. Grant was left 
behind in charge of the sick, on Chagres river, and displayed 
great skill and devotion in caring for them and supplying 
means of transportation. On arriving in California, he spent 
a few weeks with his regiment at Benicia barracks, and then 
accompanied it to Fort Vancouver, Oregon. On 5 Aug., 1853, 
he was promoted to the captaincy of a company stationed at 
Humboldt bay, Cal., and in September he went to that post. 

He resigned his commission, 31 July, 1854, and settled on a 
small farm near St. Louis. He was engaged in farming and in 
the real-estate business in St. Louis until May, i860, when he 
removed to Galena, 111., and there became a clerk in the hard- 



350 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

ware and leather store of his father, who in a letter to Gen Jas. 
Grant Wilson, dated 20 March, 1868, writes: "After Ulysses's 
farming and real-estate experiments in St. Louis county, Mo., 
failed to be self-supporting, he came to me at this place [Cov- 
ington, Ky.] for advice and assistance. I referred him to Simp- 
son, my next oldest son, who had charge of my Galena business, 
and who was staying with me on account of ill health. Simp- 
son sent him to the Galena store, to stay until something else 
might turn up in his favor, and told him he must confine his 
wants within $800 a year. That if that would not support him 
he must draw what it lacked from the rent of his house and the 
hire of his negroes in St. Louis. He went to Galena in April, 
i860, about one year before the capture of Sumter; then he 
left. That amount would have supported his family then, but 
he owed debts at St. Louis, and did draw $1,500 in the year, 
but he paid back the balance after he went into the army." 
When news was received of the beginning of the civil war, a 
public meeting was called in Galena, and Capt. Grant was 
chosen to preside. He took a pronounced stand in favor of 
the Union cause and a vigorous prosecution of the war. A 
company of volunteers was raised, which he drilled and accom- 
panied to Springfield, 111. Gov. Yates, of that state, employed 
Capt. Grant in the adjutant-general's department, and appoint- 
ed him mustering officer. He offered his services to the 
National government in a letter written on 24 May, 1861, but 
no answer was ever made to it. On 17 June he was appointed 
colonel of the 21st Illinois regiment of infantry, which had 
been mustered in at Mattoon. The regiment was transferred 
to Springfield, and on 3 July he went with it from that place to 
Palmyra, Mo., thence to Salt River, where it guarded a portion 
of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad, and thence to the town 
of Mexico, where Gen. Pope was stationed as commander of 
the military district. On 31 July, Grant was assigned to the 
command of a sub-district under Gen. Pope, his troops consist- 
ing of three regiments of infantry and a section of artillery. 
He was appointed a brigadier-general of volunteers on 7 Aug., 
the commission being dated back to 17 May, and was ordered 
to Ironton, Mo., to take command of a district in that part 
of the state, where he arrived 8 Aug. Ten days afterward 
he was ordered to St. Louis, and thence to Jefferson City. 
Eight days later he was directed to report in person at St. 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 351 

Louis, and on reaching there found that he had been assigned 
to the command of the district of southeastern Missouri, 
embracing all the territory in Missouri south of St. Louis, and 
all southern Illinois, with permanent headquarters at Cairo. 
He established temporary headquarters at Cape Girardeau, on 
the Mississippi, to superintend the fitting out of an expedition 
against the Confederate Col. Jeff. Thompson, and arrived at 
Cairo on 4 Sept. The next day he received information that 
the enemy was about to seize Paducah, Ky., at the mouth of 
the Tennessee, having aready occupied Columbus and Hickman. 
He moved that night with two regiments of infantry and one 
battery of artillery, and occupied Paducah the next morning. 
He issued a proclamation to the citizens, saying, " I have noth- 
ing to do with opinions, and shall deal only with armed rebel- 
lion and its aiders and abettors." Kentucky had declared an 
intention to remain neutral in the war, and this prompt occu- 
pation of Paducah prevented the Confederates from getting a 
foothold there, and did much toward retaining the state within 
the Union lines. Gen. Sterling Price was advancing into Missouri 
with a Confederate force, and Grant was ordered, i Nov., to 
make a demonstration on both sides of the Mississippi, to prevent 
troops from being sent from Columbus and other points to re- 
enforce Price. On 6 Nov., Grant moved down the river with 
about 3,000 men on steamboats, accompanied by two gun-boats, 
debarked a few men on the Kentucky side that night, and 
learned that troops of the enemy were being ferried across from 
Columbus to re-enforce those on the west side of the river. A 
Confederate camp was established opposite, at Belmont, and 
Grant decided to attack it. On the morning of the 7th he 
debarked his troops three miles above the place, left a strong 
guard near the landing, and marched to the attack with about 
2,500 men. A spirited engagement took place, in which Grant's 
horse was shot under him. The enemy was routed and his 
camp captured, but he soon rallied, and was re-enforced by 
detachments ferried across from Columbus, and Grant fell 
back and re-embarked. He got his men safely on the steam- 
boats, and was himself the last one in the command to step 
aboard. He captured 175 prisoners and two guns, and spiked 
four other pieces, and lost 485 men. The Confederates lost 
642. The opposing troops, including re-enforcements sent from 
Columbus, numbered about 7,000. 



352 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



In January, 1S62, he made a reconnoissance in force toward 
Columbus. He was struck with the advantage possessed by 
the enemy in holding Fort Henry on Tennessee river, and Fort 
Donelson on the Cumberland, and conceived the idea of captur- 
ing them before they could be further strengthened, by means 
of an expedition composed of the troops under his command, 
assisted by the gun-boats. He went to St. Louis and submitted 
his proposition to the department commander, Gen. Halleck, 
but was listened to with impatience, and his views were not 
approved. On 28 Jan. he telegraphed Halleck, renewing the 
suggestion, and saying, *' If permitted, I could take and hold 
Fort Henry on the Tennessee." Com. Foote, commanding the 

gun-boats, sent a similar despatch. 
On the 29th Grant also wrote urg- 
ing the expedition. Assent was 
obtained on i Feb., and the expe- 
dition moved the next day. Gen. 
Tilghman surrendered Fort Henry 
on the 6th, after a bombardment 
by the gun-boats. He with his 
staff and ninety men were cap- 
tured, but most of the garrison 
escaped and joined the troops in 
^^ Fort Donelson, eleven miles dis- 

C^. ^ <!^^i=i— o.^tr tant, commanded by Gen. Floyd, 

^(/Ii^r j'^'^.~i'^^£^. who, after this re-enforcement, 

had about 21,000 men. Grant at 
once prepared to invest Donelson, and on the 12th began the 
siege with a command numbering 15,000, which was increased 
on the 14th to 27,000 ; but about 5,000 of these were employed 
in guarding roads and captured places. His artillery consisted 
of eight light batteries. The weather was extremely cold, the 
water high, much rain and snow fell, and the sufferings of the 
men were intense. The enemy's position, naturally strong, 
had been intrenched and fortified. There was heavy fighting 
on three successive days. On the 15th the enemy, fearing 
capture, made a desperate assault with the intention of cutting 
his way out. Grant detected the object of the movement, 
repelled the assault, and by a vigorous attack secured so com- 
manding a position that the enemy saw further resistance would 
be useless. Floyd turned over the command to Pillow, who in 




ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 



353 



turn resigned it to Buckner, and Floyd and Pillow escaped in 
the night on a steamboat. Over 3,000 infantry and the greater 
portion of Forrest's cavalry made their escape at the same time. 
On the i6th Buckner wrote proposing that commissioners be 
appointed to arrange for terms of capitulation. General Grant 
replied : " No terms other than an unconditional and immediate 
surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately 
upon your works." 

The garrison was surrendered the same day, uncondition- 
ally. The capture included 14,623 men, 65 cannon, and 17,600 
small-arms. The killed and wounded numbered about 2,500. 
Grant's loss was 2,041 in killed, wounded, and missing. This 
was the first capture of a prominent strategic point since the 
war began, and indeed the only substantial victory thus far 
for the National arms. It opened up two important navigable 
rivers, and left the enemy no strong foothold in Kentucky or 
Tennessee. Grant was soon afterward made a major-general 
of volunteers, his commission dating from 16 Feb., and his 
popularity throughout the country began from that day. He 
urged a prompt following up of this victory, and set out for 
Nashville, 28 Feb., without waiting for instructions, but tele- 
graphing that he should go if he received no orders to the 
contrary. For this, and under the pretence that he had not 
forwarded to his superiors in command certain reports showing 
the strength and positions of his forces, he was deprived of his 
command, and ordered to remain at Fort Henry. He was not 
restored to command until 13 March, when his services were 
again required in view of the enemy's having concentrated a 
large army near Corinth, Miss., and he transferred his head- 
quarters to Savannah, on Tennessee river, on the 17th. He 
found the forces under his command, numbering about 38,000 
men, encamped on both sides of the river, and at once trans- 
ferred them all to the west side and concentrated them in the 
vicinity of Pittsburgh Landing. He there selected a favorable 
position, and put his army in line, with the right resting at 
Shiloh Church, nearly three miles from the river. He was 
directed not to attack the enemy, but to await the arrival of 
Gen. Buell's army of 40,000 men, which was marching south- 
ward through Tennessee to join Grant. On 6 April the Con- 
federate army, numbering nearly 50,000 men, commanded by 
Gen. Albert S. Johnston, made a vigorous attack at daylight. 



554 



UI'FS tV 77/ A^ rA'KSJD£XrSs 



drove the National troops back in some confusion. ;uul con- 
tinued to press the advantage gained ilurinii the ennie day. 
Gen. Johnston was killed about one o'clock, and tl\c connn.uul 
of the Confederates devolved upon l«en. Heaurcjiard; 5.000 of 
(.•rant's troops did not arrive on the t\eld ilurinji the day, so 
that his command was outnumbered, and it required all his 
etYorts to hold his position on the river until evening, l.ate in 
the afternoon the head of Huell's column crossed the river, 
but not in time to participate actively in the ttghting. as the 
enemy's attacks had ceased. Grant sought shelter that night 
in a hut ; but the surgeons had made an amputating hosjMtal 
of it, and he found the sight so painful that he went out into 
the rain-storm and slept under a tree. He had given orders 
for an advance all along the lines the next morning, liuell's 
troops had now joined him. and the attack was pushed with 
such vigor that the enemy were steadily driven back, and re- 
treated nineteen miles to Corinth. On this day Grant's sword- 
scabbard was broken by a bullet. His loss in the battle was 
1,754 kdled. S,4oJn wounded. .;.8v^5 missing; total. 13.047. The 
enemy acknowledged a loss of 1.7.18 killed. 8.0 u wounded, 
and 057 missing: total. 10.009; but there are evidences that it 
was much greater. The National ot^cers estimated the Con- 
federate dead alone at 4,000. On the 1 ith Gen. Halleck arrived 
at headquarters, and took command in person. The forces 
consisted now of the right and left wings, centre, and reserve, 
commanded respectively by Gens. Thomas, Pope, lUiell. and 
McClernand. numbering in all nearly 1 jo,ooo men. The enemy 
was behind strong fortifications, and numbered over 50,000. 
Grant was named second in command of all the troops, but 
was especially intrusted with the right wing and reserve. On 
30 April an advance was begun against Corinth, but the enemy 
evacuated the place and retreated, without tighting. on 30 
May, On n June, Grant moved his headquarters to Memphis. 
Gen. Halleck was appointed general-in-chief of all the armies. 
11 July. Grant returned to Corinth on 15 July, and on the 17th 
Halleck set out for Washington, leaving Grant in command of 
the Army of the Tennessee: and on 25 Oct. he was assigned 
to the command of the Department of the Tennessee, in- 
cluding Cairo. Forts Henry and Honelson. northern Mississippi, 
and portions of Kentucky and Tennessee west of Tennessee 
river. He ordered a movement against the enemy at luka to 



UJ,YSShS ;JM/':,ON G/<AJV7: 



355 



capture Vr'ux'v, force at that place, and a battle wah fought on 
19 and 20 Sept. 'i'he plan promised success, but the fault* 
committed by the officer commandin;;^ one wing of the troop* 
engaged permitted the enemy to escape. The National lo»« wa« 
736, that of the Confederates 1,438. Orant strengthened the 
position around O^rinth, and remained there about eight week». 
When the enemy afterward attacked it, 3 and 4 <'Jc*t,, they met 
with a severe repul«e. Gen, William S. Ko»ecrans was in im- 
mediate command r^ the National troops. On the 5th they 
were struck while in retreat, and badly beaten in the battle of 
the Hatchie. The entire National loss was 2,359. From the 
best attainable w^urces of information, the 0>>nfederatc» would 
seem to have lost nearly twice that number. 

After the battle of Corinth, Grant proposed to Halleck, in 
the latter part of October, a movement looking to the capture 
of Vicksburg. On 3 Nov. he left Jackson, Tenn., and made a 
movement with 30,000 men against Grand Junction, and- on 
the 4th he had seized this place and La Grange. The force 
opposing him was about equal to his own. On the 13th hig 
cavalry occupied Holly Springs; on i Dec. he advanced against 
the enemy's works on the Tallahatchie, which were hastily 
evacuated, and on the 5th reached Oxford. On the 8th he 
ordered Sherman to move down the Mississippi from Memphis 
to attack V^icksburg, Grant's column to co-operate with him by 
land. On 20 Dec. the enemy captured Holly Springs, which 
had been made a secondary base of supplies, and seized a large 
amount of stores. Col. Murphy, who surrendered the post 
without having taken any proper measures of defence, was dis- 
missed the service. The difficulties of protecting the long line 
of communication necessary for furnishing supplies, as well as 
other considerations, induced Grant to abandon the land expe- 
dition, and take command in person of the movement down 
the Mississippi. Sherman had reached Milliken's Bend, on the 
west side of the river, twenty miles above Vicksburg, on the 
24th, with about 32,000 men. He crossed the river, ascended 
the Yazoo to a point below Haines's Bluff, landed his forces, 
and made an assault upon the enemy's strongly fortified posi- 
tion at that place on the 29th, but was repelled with a loss of 
175 killed, 930 wounded, and 743 missing. The enemy reported 
63 killed, 134 wounded, and 10 missing. Grant's headquarters 
were established at Memphis on 10 Jan., and preparations were 
24 



356 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



made for a concentrated movement against Vicksburg. On 
the 29th he arrived at Young's Point, opposite the mouth of 
the Yazoo, above Vicksburg, and took command in person of 
the operations against that city, his force numbering 50,000 
men. Admiral Porter's co-operating fleet was composed of 
gun-boats of all classes, carrying 280 guns and 800 men. Three 
plans suggested themselves for reaching the high ground be- 
hind Vicksburg, the only position from which it could be be- 
sieged : First, to march the army down the west bank of the 
river, cross over below Vicksburg, and co-operate with Gen. 
Banks, who was in command of an expedition ascending the 
river from New Orleans, with a view to capturing Port Hudson 
and opening up a line for supplies from below. The high 
water and the condition of the country made this plan imprac- 
ticable at that time. Second, to construct a canal a cross the pen- 
insula opposite Vicksburg, through which the fleet of gun-boats 
and transports could pass, and which could be held open as a 
line of communication for supplies. This plan was favored at 
Washington, and was put into execution at once; but the 
high water broke the levees, drowned out the camps, and flood- 
ed the country, and after two months of laborious effort Grant 
reported it impracticable. Third, to turn the Mississippi from 
its course by opening a new channel via Lake Providence and 
through various bayous to Red river. A force was set to work 
to develop this plan ; but the way was tortuous and choked 
with timber, and by March it was found impossible to open a 
practicable channel. In the mean time an expedition was sent 
to the east side of the river to open a route via Yazoo pass, the 
Tallahatchie, the Yalabusha, and the Yazoo rivers; but insur- 
mountable difficulties were encountered, and this attempt also 
had to be abandoned. Grant, having thoroughly tested all the 
safer plans, now determined to try a bolder and more hazardous 
one, which he had long had in contemplation, but which the 
high water had precluded. This was, to run the batteries with 
the gun-boats and transports loaded with supplies, to march 
his troops down the west side of the river from Milliken's Bend 
to the vicinity of New Carthage, and there ferry them across 
to the east bank. The movement of the troops was begun on 
29 March. They were marched to New Carthage and Hard 
Times. On the night of 16 April the fleet ran the batteries 
under a severe fire. On 29 April the gun-boats attacked the 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 



357 



works al Grand Gulf, but made little impression, and that night 
ran the batteries to a point below. On 30 April the advance 
of the army was ferried across to Bruinsburg, below Grand 
Gulf and 30 miles south of Vicksburg, and marched out m the 
direction of Port Gibson. Everything was made subordinate 
to the celerity of the movement. The men had no supplies 
except such as they carried on their persons. Grant himself 
crossed the river with no personal baggage, and without even 
a horse ; but obtained one raggedly equipped horse on the east 
side. The advance encountered the enemy, under Gen. Bowen, 
numbering between 7,000 and 8,000, on i May, near Port Gib- 
son, routed him, and drove him in full retreat till nightfall. 
Grant's loss was 131 killed and 719 wounded. The Confeder- 
ates reported their loss at 448 killed and wounded, and 384 
missing; but it was somewhat larger, as Grant captured 650 
prisoners. At Port Gibson he learned of the success of Grier- 
son, whom he had despatched from La Grange, 17 April, and 
who had moved southward with 1,000 cavalry, torn up many 
miles of railroad, destroyed large amounts of supplies, and 
arrived, with but slight loss, at Baton Rouge, La., 2 May. On 3 
May, Grant entered Grand Gulf, which had been evacuated. 
He was now opposed by two armies — one commanded by Gen. 
John C. Pemberton at Vicksburg, numbering about 52,000 men ; 
the other by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston at Jackson, 50 miles east 
of Vicksburg, who was being rapidly re-enforced. Gen. Sher- 
man had been ordered to make a demonstration against 
Haines's Bluff, to compel the enemy to detach troops for its 
defence and withhold them from Grant's front ; and this feint 
was successfully executed, 30 April and i May, when Sherman 
received orders to retire and join the main army. Grant deter- 
mined to move with celerity, place his force between the two 
armies of the enemy, and defeat them in detail before they 
could unite against him. He cut loose from his base, and 
ordered that the three days' rations issued to the men should 
be made to last five days. Sherman's command reached Grand 
Gulf on the 6th. On the 12th, Grant's advance, near Raymond, 
encountered the enemy approaching from Jackson, and de- 
feated and drove him from the field with a loss of 100 killed, 
305 wounded, 415 prisoners, and 2 guns. Grant's loss was 66 
killed, 339 wounded, and 37 missing. He pushed on to Jackson, 
and captured it on the 14th, with a loss of 42 killed, and 251 



358 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS, 



wounded and missing. The enemy lost 845 in killed, wounded, 
and missing, and 17 guns. Grant now moved rapidly toward 
Vicksburg, and attacked Pemberton in a strong position at 
Champion Hill. After a hotly contested battle, the enemy 
was completely routed, with a loss of between 3,000 and 4,000 
killed and wounded, 3,000 prisoners, and 30 guns; Grant's loss 
being 410 killed, 1,844 wounded, and 187 missing. The enemy 
made a stand at Big Black river bridge on the 17th, holding a 
strongly intrenched position ; but by a vigorous assault the 
place was carried, and the enemy was driven across the river 
in great confusion, with the loss of many killed, 1,751 prisoners, 
and 18 guns. Grant's loss was but 39 killed, 237 wounded, 
and 3 missing. On the i8th the National army closed up 
against the outworks of Vicksburg, driving the enemy inside 
his fortifications. Sherman took possession of Haines's Bluff, 
a base for supplies was established at Chickasaw Landing, 
and on the 21st the army was once more supplied with full 
rations. On 19 and 22 May assaults were made upon the 
enemy's lines, but only a few outworks were carried, and on 
the 23d the siege was regularly begun. By 30 June there were 
220 guns in position, all light field-pieces except six 32-pound- 
ers and a battery of heavy guns supplied by the navy. Grant 
now had 71,000 men to conduct the siege and defend his posi- 
tion against Johnston's army threatening him in the rear. 
The operations were pressed day and night; there was mining 
and countermining; and the lines were pushed closer and 
closer, until the garrison abandoned all hope. On 3 July, Pem- 
berton asked for an armistice, and proposed the appointment 
of commissioners to arrange terms of capitulation. Grant re- 
plied that there would be no terms but unconditional surren- 
der ; and this was made on the 4th of July. He permitted the 
officers and men to be paroled, the officers to retain their private 
baggage and side-arms, and each mounted officer one horse. 
Grant showed every consideration to the vanquished, supplied 
them with full rations, and, when they marched out, issued an 
order saying, " Instruct the commands to be orderly and quiet 
as these prisoners pass, and to make no offensive remarks." 
The surrender included 31,600 prisoners, 172 cannon, 60,000 
muskets, and a large amount of ammunition. Grant's total 
loss in the Vicksburg campaign was 8,873 ; that of the enemy 
nearly 60,000. Port Hudson now surrendered to Banks, and 



ULYSSES SIMFSOX GRANT. 



359 



the Mississippi was opened from its source to its mouth. 
Grant was made a major-general in the regular army ; and con- 
gress, when it assembled, passed a resolution ordering a gold 
medal to be presented to him (see illustration on page 379), and 
returning thanks to him and his army. 

He soon recommended a movement against Mobile, but it 
was not approved. He went to New Orleans, 30 Aug., to con- 
fer with Banks, and while there was severely injured by a fall 
from his horse, during a trial of speed with Col. Wilson, the 
editor of this work. For nearly three months he was unable to 
walk unaided, but on 16 Sept. set out for Vicksburg, being 
carried on board the steamboat. He received orders from 
Washington on the 27th to send all available forces to the 
vicinity of Chattanooga, to co-operate with Rosecrans. While 
personally superintending the carrying out of this order, he 
received instructions, 10 Oct., to report at Cairo. He arrived 
there on the i6th, and was directed to proceed to Louisville. 
At Indianapolis he was met by Mr. Stanton, secretary of war, 
who accompanied him to Louisville and delivered an order to 
him placing him in command of the military division of the 
Mississippi, which was to embrace the departments and armies 
of the Tennessee, the Cumberland, and the Ohio. He at once 
went to Chattanooga, arriving on the 23d, and took command 
there in person. On 29 Oct. the battle of Wauhatchie was 
fought, and a much-needed line of communication for supplies 
was opened to the troops in and around Chattanooga, besieged 
by Bragg's army, which held a strongly fortified position. 
Thomas commanded the Army of the Cumberland, which held 
Chattanooga; Sherman, who had succeeded Grant in command 
of the Army of the Tennessee, was ordered to bring all his 
available troops to join Thomas; and Burnside, who was in 
Knoxville, in command of the Army of the Ohio, besieged by 
Longstreet's corps, was ordered to hold his position at all 
hazards till Bragg should be crushed and a force could be sent 
to the relief of Knoxville. Grant, having concentrated his 
troops near Chattanooga, made an assault upon the enemy's 
lines on the 23d, which resulted in carrying important positions. 
The attack was continued on the 24th and 25th, when the 
enemy's entire line was captured, and his army completely 
routed and driven out of Tennessee. Grant's forces consisted 
of 60,000 men ; those of the Confederates, 45,000. The enemy's 



36o 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



losses were reported at 361 killed and 2,180 wounded, but were 
undoubtedly greater. There were captured 6,442 men, 40 
pieces of artillery, and 7,000 stands of small-arms. Grant's 
losses were 757 killed, 4,529 wounded, and 330 missing. On 
the 28th a force was despatched to Knoxville, the command of 
the expedition being given to Sherman. On the 29th Long- 
street assaulted Knoxville before the arrival of the troops sent 
for its relief, but was repelled by Burnside, and retreated. 
Grant visited Knoxville the last week in December, and went 
from there to Nashville, where he established his headquarters, 
13 Jan., 1864. He now ordered Sherman to march a force 
from Vicksburg into the interior to destroy the enemy's com- 
munications and supplies. It moved on 3 Feb., went as far as 
Meridian, reaching there 14 Feb., and, after destroying rail- 
roads and great quantities of supplies, returned to Vicksburg. 
The grade of lieutenant-general was revived by act of congress 
in February, and Grant was nominated for that office on i 
March, and confirmed by the senate on the 2d. He left Nash- 
ville on the 4th, in obedience to an order calling him to Wash- 
ington, arrived there on the 8th, and received his commission 
from the president on the 9th. He was assigned to the com- 
mand of all the armies on the 12th (Sherman being given the 
command of the military division of the Mississippi on the i8th), 
and established his headquarters with the Army of the Poto- 
mac at Culpepper, Va., on 26 March, 1864. 

Grant now determined to concentrate all the National forces 
into several distinct armies, which should move simultaneously 
against the opposing Confederate armies, operate vigorously 
and continuously, and prevent them from detaching forces to 
strengthen threatened points, or for the purpose of making 
raids. He announced that the Confederate armies would be 
the only objective points in the coming campaigns. Sherman 
was to move toward Atlanta against Johnston. Banks's army, 
after it could be withdrawn from the Red river expedition, 
was to operate against Mobile. Sigel was to move down the 
valley of Virginia against Breckenridge to destroy communica- 
tions and supplies, and prevent raids from that quarter. But- 
ler was to ascend the James river and threaten Richmond. 
The Army of the Potomac, re-enforced by Burnside's troops 
and commanded by Meade, was to cover Washington, and 
assume the offensive against the Army of northern Virginia, 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 



361 



commanded by Gen. Robert E. Lee. Orders were issued for 
a general movement of all the armies in the field on 4 May. 
During the night of the 4th and 5th Grant crossed the Rapidan 
and encountered Lee in the Wilderness, where a desperate 
battle was fought on the 5th, 6th, and 7th. Grant's loss was 
2,261 killed, 8,7^5 wounded, and 2,902 missing. Lee's losses 
have never been reported; but, as he was generally the attack- 
ing party, he probably lost more. He fell back on the 7th, 
and on that day and the next took up a strong defensive posi- 
tion at Spottsylvania. Grant moved forward on the night of 
the 7th. As he rode through the 
troops, the men greeted him as their 
new commander with an extraordi- 
nary demonstration in recognition of 
the victory, shouting, cheering, and 
kindling bonfires by the road-side as 
he passed. The 8th and 9th were 
spent by both armies in skirmishing 
and manoeuvring for position. Sher- 
idan's cavalry was despatched on 
the 9th to make a raid in rear of the 
enemy and threaten Richmond. On 
the loth there was heavy fighting, 

with no decisive results, and on the nth skirmishing and re- 
connoitring. On the morning of this day Grant sent a let- 
ter to Washington containing the famous sentence, " I pro- 
pose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer." On 
the 12th a heavy assault was made on Lee's line, near the 
centre, in which he lost nearly 4,000 prisoners and 30 guns. 
Violent storms now caused a cessation in the fighting for 
several days. On the 19th, Ewell's corps, of Lee's army, 
moved around Grant's right flank and attacked, but was re- 
pelled after hard fighting. Grant's losses from the 8th to the 
2ist of May, around Spottsylvania, were 2,271 killed, 9,360 
wounded, and 1,970 missing. The estimate of the enemy's loss 
in killed and wounded was nearly as great as that of the Na- 
tional army, besides about 4,000 prisoners and 30 cannon cap- 
tured. In the mean time Butler had occupied Bermuda Hun- 
dred, below Richmond. Sherman had reached Dalton, Ga., 
and was steadily driving Johnston's army toward Atlanta. But 
Sigel had been forced to retreat before Breckenridge. On the 




362 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

2ist, Grant moved by the left flank to North Anna river, where 
he again encountered Lee, and after several engagements 
moved again by the left from that position on the 27th toward 
Cold Harbor. Grant's losses between the 20th and 26th were 
186 killed, 792 wounded, and 165 missing. Lee's losses during 
this period have never been fully ascertained. After much 
fighting by detached portions of the two armies. Grant made a 
general assault upon Lee's heavily intrenched position at Cold 
Harbor on 3 June, but did not succeed in carrying it, being 
repelled with a loss of about 7,000 in killed, wounded, and 
missing, while Lee's loss was probably not more than 2,500. 
The campaign had now lasted thirty days. Grant had received 
during this time about 40,000 re-enforcements, and had lost 
39,259 men — 6,586 killed, 26,047 wounded, and 6,626 missing. 
Lee had received about 30,000 re-enforcements. There are no 
official figures as to his exact losses, but they have been esti- 
mated at about equal to his re-enforcements. Sherman had 
now reached Kenesaw, within thirty miles of Atlanta; and on 
the 7th news arrived that Hunter, who had succeeded Sigel, 
had gamed a victory and had seized Staunton, on the Virginia 
Central railroad. Grant made preparations for transferring 
the Army of the Potomac to the south side of James river, to 
operate against Petersburg and Richmond from a more advan- 
tageous position. The army was withdrawn from the enemy's 
front on the night of 12 June, and the crossing of the river 
began on the 13th, and occupied three days. A force had also 
been sent around by water, by York and James rivers to City 
Point, to move against Petersburg. On the 15th the advanced 
troops attacked the works in front of that place ; but, night 
coming on, the successes gained were not followed up by the 
commanders, and the next morning the position had been re- 
enforced and strengthened. An assault was made on the after- 
noon of the i6th, which was followed up on the 17th and i8th, 
and the result was the capture of important outworks, and the 
possession of a line closer to Petersburg. Lee's army had 
arrived, and again confronted the Army of the Potomac. 
Grant's headquarters had been established at City Point. On 
22 and 23 June he made a movement from the left toward the 
Weldon railroad, and heavy fighting took place, with but little 
result, except to render Lee's use of that line of communication 
more precarious. Sheridan had set out on a raid from Pamun- 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 



363 



key river, 7 June, and, after defeating the enemy's cavalry, in 
the battle of Trevilian Station, destroying portions of the Vir- 
ginia railroad, and inflicting other damage, he returned to 
White House, on York river, on the 20th. From there he 
crossed the James and rejoined the Army of the Potomac. A 
cavalry force under Gen. James H. Wilson had also been sent 
to the south and west of Petersburg, which destroyed railroad 
property, and for a time seriously interrupted the enemy's com- 
munications via the Danville and South-side railroads. Hun- 
ter, in the valley of Virginia, had destroyed the stores captured 
at Staunton and Lexington, and moved to Lynchburg. This 
place was re-enforced, and, after sharp fighting. Hunter fell 
back, pursued by a heavy force, to Kanawha river. Early's 
army drove the National, troops out of Martinsburg, crossed 
the upper Potomac, and moved upon Hagerstown and Freder- 
ick. There was great consternation in Washington, and Grant 
was harassed by many anxieties. On 11 July, Early advanced 
against the fortifications on the north side of Washington ; but 
Grant had sent the 6th corps there, which arrived opportunely, 
and the enemy did not attack. Sherman had outflanked John- 
ston at Kenesaw, crossed the Chattahoochee on 17 July, driven 
the enemy into his works around Atlanta, and destroyed a 
portion of the railroad in his rear. In Burnside's front, before 
Petersburg, a large mine had been constructed beneath the 
enemy's works. Many of Lee's troops had been decoyed to 
the north side of the James by feints made upon the lines 
there. The mine was fired at daylight on the morning of 30 
July. A defective fuse caused a delay in the explosion, and 
when it occurred the assault ordered was badly executed by 
the officers in charge of it. Confusion arose, the place was 
re-enforced, and the National troops had to be withdrawn, 
after sustaining a heavy loss. Grant, in his anxiety to correct 
the errors of his subordinates, dismounted and made his way 
to the extreme front, giving directions in person, and exposing 
himself to a most destructive fire. He went to Monocacy 5 
Aug., had Sheridan meet him there on the 6th, and placed him 
in command of all the forces concentrated in Maryland, with 
directions to operate against Early's command. On 14 Aug., 
Hancock's corps was sent to the north side of the James, and 
made a demonstration against the enemy at Deep Bottom, to de- 
velop his strength and prevent him from detaching troops to 



364 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



send against Sheridan. This resulted in the capture of six 
pieces of artillery and a few prisoners. On 18 Aug., Warren's 
corps moved out and, after heavy fighting, seized and held a 
position on the Weldon railroad. Fighting continued on the 
19th, with Warren's troops re-enforced by part of the 9th 
corps. Lee attempted to recover the Weldon road by an 
assault on the 21st, but was repelled. On the 23d, Ream's 
Station was occupied by the National troops, and the enemy 
attacked them in this place in force. Two assaults were suc- 
cessfully met, but the place was finally captured, and the Na- 
tional troops were compelled to fall back. Sherman's series of 
brilliant battles and manoeuvres around Atlanta had forced Gen. 
Hood to evacuate that place, and his troops entered the city 
on 2 Sept. Sheridan attacked Early's army on 19 Sept., and in 
the battle of Winchester completely routed him. He pursued 
the enemy to Fisher's Hill, and on the 22d gained another 
signal victory. Grant now made several movements against 
Richmond and Petersburg, intended to keep Lee from detach- 
ing troops, to extend the National lines, and to take advantage 
of any weak spot in the enemy's front, with a view to penetrate 
it. On 29 Sept., Butler's forces were ordered to make an ad- 
vance upon the works at Deep Bottom. Fort Harrison, the 
strongest work north of the James, was captured, with 15 guns 
and several hundred prisoners. On the 30th the enemy made 
three attempts to retake it by assault, but was each time re- 
pelled with heavy loss. On the same day Meade moved out 
and carried two redoubts and a line of rifle-pits at Peebles's 
farm, two miles west of the Weldon railroad. On i Oct., 
Meade's left was attacked; but it successfully repelled the 
assault, and he advanced his line on the 2d. Butler lost, in 
the engagements of the 29th and 30th, 394 killed, 1,554 wounded, 
and 324 missing. Meade lost, from 30th Sept. to 2 Oct., 151 
killed, 510 wounded, and 1,348 missing. On 19 Oct., Sheridan's 
army was attacked by Early at Cedar Creek. Sheridan, who 
was on his return from Washington, rode twenty miles from 
Winchester, turned a defeat into a decisive victory, captured 
24 guns, 1,600 prisoners, and 300 wagons, and left the enemy 
a complete wreck. On 27 Oct., Butler was ordered to make a 
demonstration against the enemy's line in his front, and had 
some fighting. At the same time, Meade moved out to Hatch- 
er's run ; but Gen. Lee was found strongly intrenched, the 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 365 

ground very difficult, and no assault was attempted. In the 
afternoon a heavy attack was made by the enemy, but was 
successfully resisted. That night the National forces were 
withdrawn to their former positions. Meade's loss was 143 
killed, 653 wounded, and 488 missing; the enemy's was greater, 
as he lost in prisoners alone about 1,300 men. Butler's loss 
on this day was 700 in killed and wounded, and 400 missing. 

Sherman destroyed the railroad in his rear, cut loose from 
his base, and set out from Atlanta, 16 Nov., on his march to 
Savannah. Gen. John D. Hood, who had superseded John- 
ston, instead of following Sherman, turned northward and 
moved his army against Thomas, who had been placed in com- 
mand of the troops left for the defence of Tennessee. Thomas 
concentrated his forces in the vicinity of Nashville. Schofield 
was at Franklin, twenty-five miles from Nashville, with about 
26,000 men. Hood attacked him on 30 Nov.. but after a hotly 
contested battle was repelled with heavy loss. Thomas, with 
his entire army, attacked Hood, and in the battle of Nashville, 
15 and 16 Dec, completely defeated the enemy, capturing 53 
guns and 4,462 prisoners, and drove him south of Tennessee 
river. Sherman reached the sea-coast near Savannah on 14 
Dec, after destroying about 200 miles of railroad and $100,- 
000,000 worth of property. He invested Savannah, and forced 
the enemy to evacuate it on the night of 20 Dec. Grant had 
sent Butler in charge of an expedition against Fort Fisher, at 
the mouth of Cape Fear river, to act in conjunction with the 
naval fleet under Admiral Porter. He sailed from Fort Mon- 
roe, 14 Dec, landed his troops 25 Dec, and advanced against 
the fort, which had been vigorously shelled by the navy ; but, 
while the assaulting party had every prospect of entering the 
work, they received an order to fall back and re-embark. 
The expedition reached Fort Monroe, on its return, 27 Dec. 
Butler was relieved, and Gen. E. O. C. Ord was assigned to the 
command of the Army of the James. Grant fitted out another 
expedition against Fort Fisher, under Gen. Alfred H. Terry, 
which sailed from Fort Monroe on 6 Jan., 1865. On the 13th 
the navy directed a heavy fire against the fort. Terry landed 
his troops, intrenched against a force of the enemy threatening 
him from the direction of Wilmington, and on the 15th made 
a vigorous assault, capturing the fort with its garrison and 
169 heavy guns, and a large quantity of ammunition. It was 



366 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



at first thought best to transfer Sherman's army by sea to Vir- 
ginia, but this plan was abandoned, and on 27 Dec. he was 
ordered to move north by land. His army numbered 60,000 
men, and was accompanied by 68 guns and 2,500 wagons. 
On 7 Jan., Schofield was directed to bring his army, then at 
Clifton, Tenn., to the sea-coast. It reached Washington and 
Alexandria, 31 Jan., and on 9 Feb. arrived at the mouth of 
Cape Fear river, with instructions to operate against Wilming- 
ton and penetrate the interior. He entered Wilmington on 22 
Feb., it having been evacuated by the enemy, and took 51 
heavy guns, 15 light guns, and 800 prisoners. His own loss in 
these operations was about 200 in killed and wounded. He 
moved thence to Goldsboro, where it was intended he should 
form a junction with Sherman. On 2 March, Lee addressed a 
letter to Grant, suggesting a personal meeting with a view to 
arranging subjects of controversy between the belligerents to 
a convention ; but Grant replied that he had no authority to 
accede to the proposition ; that he had a right to act only on 
subjects of a purely military character. 

Sheridan moved down the valley of Virginia, from Winches- 
ter, 27 Feb., and defeated Early at Waynesboro, 2 March, cap- 
turing and scattering nearly his entire command. He then 
turned eastward, destroyed many miles of the James river 
canal, passed around the north side of Richmond, and tore up 
the railroads, arrived at White House on the 19th, and from 
there joined the Army of the Potomac. Grant had been anx- 
ious for some time lest Lee should suddenly abandon his works 
and fall back to unite with Johnston's forces in an attempt to 
crush Sherman and force Grant to pursue Lee to a point that 
would compel the Army of the Potomac to maintain a long 
line of communications with its base, as there would be noth- 
ing left in Virginia to subsist on after Lee had traversed it. 
Sleepless vigilance was enjoined on all commanders, with 
orders to report promptly any movement looking to a retreat. 
Sherman captured Columbia on 17 Feb., and destroyed large 
arsenals, railroad establishments, and forty-three cannon. 
The enemy was compelled to evacuate Charleston. On 3 
March, Sherman struck Cheraw, and seized a large quantity of 
material of war, including 25 guns and 3,600 barrels of powder. 
At Fayetteville, on the nth, he captured the finely equipped 
arsenal and twenty guns. On the i6th he struck the enemy at 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 



367 



Averysboro, and after a stubborn fight drove him from his 
position, losing 554 men. The Confederates reported their 
loss at 500. On the 19th Johnston's army attacked a portion 
of Sherman's forces at Bentonville, and made six heavy as- 
saults, which were all successfully met, and on the night of the 
2ist the enemy fell back. The National loss was 191 killed 
and 1,455 wounded and missing; that of the Confederates was 
reported at 223 killed, 1,467 wounded, 653 missing, but Sher- 
man reports his captures of prisoners at 1,621. On the 23d 
Sherman reached Goldsboro, where Schofield had arrived two 
days before, and was again in communication with the sea-coast, 
and able to draw supplies. On 20 March, Gen George Stone- 
man set out to march eastward from east Tennessee, toward 
Lynchburg, and on the same day Gen. E. R. S. Canby moved 
against Mobile. Gen. Pope, who had succeeded Rosecrans in 
Missouri, was ordered to drive Price beyond Red river. Han- 
cock had been assigned to command the middle division when 
Sheridan joined the Army of the Potomac, and the troops 
under him near Washington were held in readiness to move. 
All was now in readiness for the spring campaign, which 
Grant intended should be the last. President Lincoln, be- 
tween whom and Grant had sprung up a strong personal attach- 
ment, visited him at City Point on 22 March, and Sherman 
came there on the 27th. They, with Grant and Admiral Por- 
ter, held an informal conference, and on the 28th Sherman set 
out again to join his army. At daylight, on 25 March, Lee 
had made a determined assault on Grant's right, capturing 
Fort Steadman, breaking through the National lines, and gain- 
ing possession of several batteries. In a few hours he was 
driven back, and all the captured positions were regained. 
Lee took this step to endeavor to force the withdrawal of 
troops in front of his left, and enable him to leave his intrench- 
ments and retreat toward Danville. Its failure prevented the 
attempt. The country roads being considered sufficiently dry, 
Grant had issued orders for a general advance on the 29th, and 
these were carried out at the appointed time. Sheridan, with 
his cavalry, was sent in advance to Dinwiddie Court-House. 
The 5th corps had some fighting on the 29th, and in moving 
forward on the 31st was attacked and driven back a mile. 
Supported by a part of the 2d corps, it made a counter-attack, 
drove the enemy back into his breastworks, and secured an 



368 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



advanced position. Sheridan had pushed on to Five Forks, 
but his command encountered a strong force of infantry and 
cavalry, and after heavy fighting all day he fell back to Din- 
widdle Court-House, where he repelled the repeated assaults 
made upon him, and held the place. The 5th corps was that 
night ordered to report to Sheridan. The enemy, on the morn- 
ing of I April, fell back toward Five Forks, closely followed 
by the cavalry, which pressed him closely. In the afternoon 
he had taken up a strongly intrenched position at Five Forks, 
on Lee's extreme right. The 5th corps having joined Sheridan, 
he made a combined attack, with infantry and cavalry, and 
by nightfall had gained a brilliant victory, capturing the Con- 
federate works, 6 guns, and nearly 6,000 prisoners. His cavalry 
pursued the broken and flying enemy for six miles beyond the 
field of battle. That night, after getting the full details of 
Sheridan's success. Grant determined to make a vigorous as- 
sault the next day, with all his troops, upon the lines around 
Petersburg. It began at daylight, 2 April ; the works were 
carried, and in a few hours Grant was closing in upon the 
inner defences of the city. Two of the forts, Gregg and Whit- 
worth, were secured m the afternoon. The former was cap- 
tured by assault, the latter was evacuated; 12,000 prisoners 
and over fifty guns were already in Grant's hands. Richmond 
and Petersburg were evacuated that night, and the National 
forces entered and took possession on the morning of the 3d. 
Grant, anticipating this, had begun a movement westward dur- 
ing the night, to head off Lee from Danville, and a vigorous 
pursuit by the whole army was ordered. It became evident 
that Lee was moving toward Amelia Court-House, and a force 
was urged forward to Jetersville, on the Danville railroad, to 
get between him and Danville. Part of Sheridan's cavalry 
and the head of the 5th corps reached there on the afternoon 
of the 4th and intrenched. The Army of the Potomac arrived 
by forced marches on the 5th, while the Army of the James, 
under Ord, pushed on toward Burkesville. An attack was 
ordered upon Lee on the morning of the 6th, but he had left 
Amelia Court-House during the night, and was pushing on 
toward Farmville by the Deatonsville road. He was closely 
pursued, and on the afternoon of the 6th, Sheridan, with his 
cavalry and the 6th corps, attacked him at Sailor's Creek, cap- 
turing 7 general ofificers, about 7,000 men, and 14 guns. The 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 



369 



2d corps had kept up a running fight with the enemy all day, 
and had captured 4 guns, 17,000 prisoners, 13 flags, and 300 
wagons. Lee was continuing his retreat through Farmville, 
and Grant urged troops to that place by forced marches on 
the 7th. The 2d corps and a portion of the cavalry had been 
repelled in their attacks on Lee, north of the Appomattox, and 
the 6th corps crossed from Farmville on the evening of the 
7th to re-enforce them. That night Grant sent a note from 
Farmville to Lee, calling his attention to the hopelessness of 
further resistance, and asking the surrender of his army. He 
received a reply from Lee on the morning of the 8th, saying 
he was not entirely of Grant's opinion as to the hopelessness 
of further resistance, but asking what terms would be offered. 
Grant, who was still at Farmville, immediately replied, saying 
that, as peace was his great desire, he would insist on but one 
condition — that the men and officers surrendered should be 
disqualified from taking up arms again until properly ex- 
changed. On the 8th Lee's troops were in full retreat on the 
north side of the Appomattox. The 2d and 6th corps followed 
in hot pursuit on that side, while Sheridan, Ord, and the 5th 
corps were pushed forward with all speed on the south side to 
head off Lee from Lynchburg. Near midnight on the night of 
the 8th Grant received another note from Lee, saying he had 
not intended to propose the surrender of his army, but desired to 
know whether Grant's proposals would lead to peace, and sug- 
gested a meeting at 10 a. m. the next morning. Grant replied 
that such a meeting could lead to no good, as he had no authority 
to treat on the subject of peace, but suggested that the south's 
laying down their arms would hasten the event and save thou- 
sands of lives and hundreds of millions of property. Early on 
the morning of 9 April, Lee's advance arrived at Appomattox 
Court-House ; but by extraordinary forced marches, Sheridan, 
Ord, and Griffin reached that place at the same time. Lee 
attacked the cavalry; but, when he found infantry in his front, 
he sent in a flag of truce, and forwarded a note to Grant, ask- 
ing an interview in accordance with the offer contained in 
Grant's letter of the day before. Grant received it on the 
road while riding toward Appomattox Court-House, and sent 
a reply saying he would move forward and meet Lee at any 
place he might select. They met in the McLean house, in 
Appomattox (see accompanying illustration) on the afternoon 



370 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 




of the 9th, and the terms of surrender were drawn up by Grant 
and accepted by Lee. The conference lasted about three 
hours. The men and officers were paroled and allowed to 
return to their homes; all public property was to be turned 
over, but the officers were allowed to keep their side-arms, and 
both officers and men to retain their private horses and bag- 
gage. These terms were so magnanimous, and the treatment 
of Lee and his officers so considerate, that the effect was to 
. s^ , induce other Confed- 

.-. /'-.y\-'3k,. >.^J.-- . erates to seek the 

same terms and bring 
the rebellion to a 
speedy close. In rid- 
ing to his camp after 
the surrender. Grant 
heard the firing of 
salutes. He sent at 
once to suppress 
them, and said : " The 
war is over ; the reb- 
els are again our 
countrymen, and the best sign of rejoicing after the victory 
will be to abstain from all demonstrations in the field." The 
number paroled was 28,356. In addition to these, 19,132 had 
been captured during the campaign since 29 March. The killed 
were estimated at 5,000. After 9 April, over 20,000 stragglers 
and deserters besides came in and surrendered. The National 
losses during this period were 2,000 killed, 6,500 wounded, and 
2,500 missing. Grant's losses, including those of Butler's 
army, during the year beginning with the battle of the Wilder- 
ness, were 12,663 killed, 49,559 wounded, and 20,498 missing; 
total, 82,720. No accurate reports of the Confederate losses 
can be obtained; but Grant's captures in battle during this 
year were 66,512. 

On 10 April, Grant went to Washington to hasten the dis- 
banding of the armies, stop purchases of supplies, and save 
expense to the government. He did not stop to visit Rich- 
mond. President Lincoln was assassinated on the 14th, and 
Grant would probably have shared the same fate but for his 
having left Washington that day. On 18 April, Sherman re- 
ceived the surrender of Johnston's army, but on terms that the 



ULYSSES SIMPSOA' GRANT. 



371 



government did not approve, and Grant was sent to North 
Carolina to conduct further negotiations. On the 26th John- 
ston surrendered to Sherman on terms similar to those given 
to Lee, and 31,243 men were paroled. Grant remained at 
Raleigh and avoided being present at the interview, leaving to 
Sherman the full credit of the capture. Canby's force ap- 
peared before Mobile on 27 March, the principal defensive 
works were captured on 9 April, and Mobile was evacuated on 
the nth, when 200 guns and 4,000 prisoners were captured, but 
about 9,000 of the garrison escaped. Wilson's cavalry com- 
mand captured Selma, Ala., on 2 April, and Tuscaloosa on the 
4th, occupied Montgomery on the 14th, and took West Point 
and Columbus, Ga., on the i6th. Macon surrendered on the 
2ist. Kirby Smith surrendered his command, west of the Mis- 
sissippi, on the 26th. There was then not an armed enemy left 
in the country, and the rebellion was ended. Grant established 
his headquarters in Washington. He was greeted with ova- 
tions wherever he went, honors were heaped upon him in every 
part of the land, and he was universally hailed as the country's 
deliverer. In June, July, and August, 1865, he made a tour 
through the northern States and Canada. In November he 
was welcomed in New York by a demonstration that exceeded 
all previous efforts. It consisted of a banquet and reception, 
and the manifestations of the people in their greetings knew 
no bounds. Immediately after the war. Grant sent Gen. Sheri- 
dan with an army corps to the Rio Grande river to observe the 
movements of the French, who were then in Mexico supporting 
the Imperial government there in violation of the Monroe doc- 
trine. This demonstration was the chief cause of the with- 
drawal of the French. Maximilian, being left without assist- 
ance from a European power, was soon driven from his throne, 
and the republic of Mexico was re-established. 

The U. S. court in Virginia had found indictments against 
Gen. Lee and other officers prominent in the rebellion, and much 
anxiety was manifested by them on this account. Two months 
after the war, Lee applied by letter to be permitted to enjoy 
privileges extended to those included in a proclamation of 
amnesty, which had been issued by the president. Grant put 
an indorsement on the letter, which began as follows : " Re- 
spectfully forwarded through the secretary of war to the presi- 
dent, with the earnest recommendation that the application of 
25 



17^ 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Gen. Robert E. Lee for amnesty and pardon be granted him." 
But President Johnson was at that time embittered against all 
participants in the rebellion, and seemed determined to have 
Lee and others punished for the crime of treason. Lee after- 
ward made a strong appeal by letter to Grant for protection. 
Grant put a long and emphatic endorsement upon this letter, 
in which he used the following language : " In my opinion, the 
officers and men paroled at Appomattox Court-House, and 
since upon the same terms given to Lee, can not be tried for 
treason so long as they preserve the terms of their parole. . . . 
The action of Judge Underwood in Norfolk has already had 
an injurious effect, and I would ask that he be ordered to quash 
all indictments found against paroled prisoners of war, and to 
desist from further prosecution of them." Grant insisted that 
he had the power to accord the terms he granted at Appomat- 
tox, and that the president was bound to respect the agree- 
ments there entered into unless they should be abrogated by 
the prisoners violating their paroles. He went so far as to 
declare that he would resign his commission if so gross a 
breach of good faith should be perpetrated by the executive. 
The result was the abandonment of the prosecutions. This 
was the first of a series of contests between Grant and Presi- 
dent Johnson, which finally resulted in their entire estrange- 
ment. In December, Grant made a tour of inspection through 
the south. His report upon affairs in that section of the coun- 
try was submitted to congress by the president, and became 
the basis of important reconstruction laws. In May, 1866, he 
wrote a letter to the secretary of war, which was submitted to 
congress, and became the basis for the reorganization of the 
army, and also for the distribution of troops through the 
south during the process of reconstruction. The Fenians were 
now giving the government much trouble, and, in consequence 
of their acts, the relations between the United States and Great 
Britain were becoming strained. They had organized a raid into 
Canada to take place during the summer; but Grant visited 
Buffalo in June, took effective measures to stop them, and pre- 
vented all further unlawful acts on their part. Congress had 
passed an act creating the grade of general, a higher rank than 
had before existed in the army, to be conferred on Grant as a 
reward for his illustrious services in the field, and on 25 July, 
1866, he received his commission. 



ULYSSES SIMPSOiV GRANT. 



373 



In the autumn of 1866, President Johnson having changed 
his policy toward the south, finding that Grant refused to sup- 
port him in his intentions to assume powers that Grant beheved 
were vested only in congress, ordered him out of the country, 
with directions to proceed on a special mission to Mexico. 
Grant refused, saying that this was not a military service but 
a diplomatic mission, and that he claimed the right possessed 
by every citizen to decline a civil appointment. An effort was 
afterward made to send him west, to prevent his presence in 
Washington, but it was soon abandoned. The 39th congress, 
fearing the result of this action on the part of the president, 
attached a clause to the army appropriation bill, passed on 4 
March, 1867, providing that "all orders and instructions relat- 
ing to military operations shall be issued through the general 
of the army," and added that he should " not be removed, sus- 
pended, or relieved from command, or assigned to duty else- 
where than at the headquarters in Washington, except at his 
own request, without the previous approval of the senate." 
The president signed the bill, with a protest against this clause, 
and soon obtained an opinion from his attorney-general that it 
was unconstitutional. The president then undertook to send 
this opinion to the district commanders, but, finding the secre- 
tary of war in opposition, he issued it through the adjutant- 
general's office. Gen. Sheridan, then at New Orleans, in com- 
mand of the fifth military district, inquired what to do, and 
Grant replied that a " legal opinion was not entitled to the 
-force of an order," and "to enforce his own construction of 
the law until otherwise ordered." This brought on a crisis. 
The president claimed that under the constitution he could 
direct the district commanders to issue such orders as he dic- 
tated, and was met by an act of congress, passed in July, mak- 
ing the orders of the district commanders " subject to the 
disapproval of the general of the army." Thus Grant was 
given chief control of affairs relating to the reconstruction of 
the southern states. The president still retained the power of 
removal, and on the adjournment of congress he removed 
Sheridan and placed Gen. Hancock in command of the fifth 
military district. Some of Hancock's orders were revoked by 
Grant, which caused not a little bitterness of feeling between 
these officers, and provoked opposition from the Democratic 
party. Subsequently, when a bill was before congress to mus- 



374 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDEXTS. 



ter Gen. Hancock out of the service for his acts in Louisiana, 
Grant opposed it, and it was defeated. Soon afterward he 
recommended Hancock for a major-generalship in the regular 
army, to which he was appointed. 

The " tenure-of-office " act forbade the president from re- 
moving a cabinet officer without the consent of the senate; 
but President Johnson suspended Sec. Stanton, and appointed 
Grant secretary of war ad interim on 12 Aug., 1867. Grant 
protested against this action, but retained the office until 14 
Jan., 1868, when the senate refused to confirm the suspension 
of Stanton. Grant immediately notified the president, who> 
finding that the general of the army would not retain the place 
in opposition to the will of congress, and that Sec. Stanton had 
re-entered upon his office, ordered Grant verbally to disregard 
Stanton's orders. Grant declined to do so unless he received 
instructions in writing. This led to an acrimonious corre- 
spondence. The president claimed that Grant had promised 
to sustain him. This Grant emphatically denied, and in a long 
letter reviewing his action said : " The course you would have 
it understood I agreed to pursue, was in violation of law, and 
was without orders from you, while the course I did pursue, 
and which I never doubted you understood, was in accordance 
with law. . . . And now, Mr. President, when my honor as a 
soldier and integrity as a man have been so violently assailed, 
pardon me for saying that I regard this whole matter, from 
the beginning to the end, as an attempt to involve me in the 
resistance of law for which you hesitate to assume the re- 
sponsibility in orders." On 21 Feb. the president appointed 
Lorenzo Thomas adjutant-general of the arm}-, secretarv of 
war, and ordered him to take possession of the office. On 24 
Feb. articles of impeachment were passed by the house of rep- 
resentatives. Throughout these years of contest between the 
executive and congress. Grant's position became very delicate 
and embarrassing. He was compelled to execute the laws of 
congress at the risk of appearing insubordinate to his official 
chief, but his course was commended by the people, his popu- 
larity increased, and when the Republican convention met in 
Chicago, 20 May, 1868, he was unanimously nominated for the 
presidency on the first ballot. In his letter of acceptance, 
dated nine days after, he made use of the famous phrase, " Let 
us have peace." The Democratic party nominated Horatio 



ULYSSES SIMPSOiV GRANT. 



375 



Seymour, of New York. When the election occurred, Grant 
carried twenty-six states with a popular vote of 3,015,071, 
while Seymour carried eight states with a popular vote of 2,- 
709,613. It was claimed that the state of New York was 
really carried by Grant, but fraudulently counted for Seymour. 
Out of the 294 electoral votes cast for president. Grant re- 
ceived 214 and Seymour 80, three States — Mississippi, Texas, 
and Virginia — not voting. 

Grant possessed in a striking degree the essential charac- 
teristics of a successful soldier. His self-reliance was one of 
his most pronounced traits, and enabled him at critical mo- 
ments to decide promptly the most important questions with- 
out useless delay in seeking advice from others, and to assume 
the gravest responsibilities without asking any one to share 
them. He had a fertility of resource and a faculty of adapt- 
ing the means at hand to the accomplishment of his purposes, 
which contributed no small share to his success. His moral 
and physical courage were equal to every emergency in which 
he was placed. His unassuming manner, purity of character, 
and absolute loyalty to his superiors and to the work in which he 
was engaged, mspired loyalty in others and gained him the de- 
votion of the humblest of his subordinates. He was singularly 
^ calm and patient under all circumstances, was never unduly 
elated by victory or depressed by defeat, never became excited, 
and never uttered an oath or imprecation. His habits of life 
were simple, and he was possessed of a physical constitution 
that enabled him to endure every form of fatigue arid privation 
incident to milieu./ service in the field. He had an intuitive 
knowledge of topography, and never became confused as to 
locality in directing the movements of large bodies of men. 
He exhibited a rapidity of thought and action on the field that 
enabled him to move troops in the presence of an enemy with 
a promptness that has rarely been equalled. He had no hobby 
as to the use of any particular arm of the service. He natu- 
rally placed his main reliance on his infantry, but made a more 
vigorous use of cavalry than any of the generals of his day, 
and was judicious in apportioning the amount of his artillery 
to the character of the country in which he was operating. 
While his achievements in actual battle eclipse by their bril- 
liance the strategy and grand tactics employed in his cam- 
paigns, yet the extraordinary combinations effected and the 



376 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



skill and boldness exhibited in moving large armies into posi- 
tion entitle him, perhaps, to as much credit as the qualities he 
displayed in the face of the enemy. On 4 March, 1869, Grant 
was inaugurated the eighteenth president of the United States. 

Gen. Grant had never taken an active part in politics, and 
had voted for a presidential candidate but once. In 1856, al- 
though his early associations had been with the Whigs, he cast 
his vote for James Buchanan, the Democratic candidate ; but 
this was on personal rather than political grounds, as he be- 
lieved that the Republican candidate did not possess the requi- 
site qualifications for the office. So much doubt existed as to 
his political proclivities that prominent Democrats had made 
overtures to him to accept a nomination from their party only 
a few months before the nominating conventions were held. 
But he was at heart ui thorougli accord with the principles of 
the Republican party. He believed in a national banking 
system, a tariff that would fairly protect American industries, 
in the fostering of such internal improvements as would unite 
our two seaboards and give the eastern and western sections 
of the country mutual support and protection, in the dignifymg 
of labor, and in laws that would secure equal justice to all 
citizens, regardless of race, color, or previous condition. 

As early as August, 1863, he had written a letter to Elihu 
B. Washburne, member of congress, in which he said: "It be- 
came patent to my mind early in the rebellion that the north 
and south could never live at peace with each other except as 
one nation, and that without slavery. As anxious as I am to 
see peace established, I would not, therefore, be willing to see 
any settlement until this question is forever settled." In his 
inaugural address he declared that the government bonds 
should be paid in gold, advocated a speedy return to specie 
payments, and made many important recommendations in 
reference to public affairs. Regarding the good faith of the 
nation he said : " To protect the national honor, every dollar 
of government indebtedness should be paid in gold, unless 
otherwise expressly stipulated m the contract. . . . Let it be 
understood that no repudiator of one farthing of our public 
debt will be trusted in public place, and it will go far toward 
strengthening a credit which ought to be the best in the world, 
and will ultimately enable us to replace the debt with bonds 
bearing less interest than we now pay." Congress acted 



_^1_, ./i^^.-.^^^ 



Q 




^-^ ^^ ,^ ^^ .^^1__ 







ULYSSES S/MFSOA^ GRANT. 



377 



promptly upon his recommendation, and on i8 March, 1869, 
an act was passed entitled '* An act to strengthen the public 
credit." Its language gave a pledge to the world that the 
debts of the country would be paid in coin unless there were 
in the obligations express stipulations to the contrary. Both 
in his inaugural address and in his first annual message to 
congress he took strong ground in favor of an effort to "civ- 
ilize and Christianize" the Indians, and fit them ultimately for 
citizenship. His early experience among these people, while 
serving on the frontier, had eminently fitted him for inaugurat- 
ing practical methods for improving their condition. He ap- 
pointed as commissioner of Indian affairs the chief of the Six 
Nations, Gen. Ely S. Parker, a highly educated Indian, who 
had served on his staff, and selected as members of the board 
of Indian commissioners gentlemen named by the various re- 
ligious denominations throughout the country. Although such 
men were not always practical in their views, and many obsta- 
cles had to be overcome in working out this difficult problem, 
great good resulted in the end; public attention was attracted 
to the amelioration of the condition of our savage tribes ; they 
came to be treated more like wards of the nation, were gath- 
ered upon government reservations, where they could be more 
economically provided for, the number of Indian wars was 
reduced, and large amounts were saved to the government. 

The 15th amendment to the constitution, adopted 26 Feb., 
1869, guaranteed the right of suffrage without regard to race, 
color, or previous condition of servitude. It was ratified by the 
requisite three fourths of the states, and declared in force, 30 
March, 1870. The adoption of this amendment had been rec- 
ommended by President Grant, and had had his active sup- 
port throughout, and it is largely due to his efforts that it is 
now a part of the constitution. He proclaimed its adoption 
by the somewhat unusual course of sending a special message 
to congress, in which he said : " I regard it as a measure of 
grander importance than any other one act of the kind from 
the foundation of the government to the present day." He 
also urged in this message that congress should encourage 
popular education, in order that the negro might become better 
fitted for the exercise of the privileges conferred upon him by 
this important amendment. 

In the summer of 1869 a representative from Santo Do- 



3;8 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



mingo informed the president that the government and people 
of that republic favored annexation to the United States. 
The president sent several officers of the government to in- 
vestigate the condition of affairs there, and became so clearly 
impressed with the advantages that would result from the 
acquisition of that country that he negotiated a treaty of an- 
nexation, and submitted it to the senate at the next meeting of 
congress. In May, 1870, he urged favorable action on the 
part of that body in a message in which he set forth the rea- 
sons that had governed him, and again called attention to it in 
his second annual message. He claimed, among other things, 
that its admission into the Union as a territory would open up 
a large trade between the two lands, furnish desirable harbors 
for naval stations, and a place of refuge for negroes in the 
south who found themselves persecuted in their old homes; 
would favor the abolition of slavery in the West Indies, would 
be in harmony with the Monroe doctrine, and would redound 
to the great benefit of both countries and to civilization, and 
that there was danger, if we failed to receive it, that it would 
be taken by some European power, and add another to the list 
of islands off our coast controlled by European powers, and 
likely to give us trouble in case we became engaged in 
war. The measure was debated for a long time, but the senate 
did not act favorably upon it. In 1871 a commission of dis- 
tinguished citizens was sent to investigate and report upon all 
matters relating to Santo Domingo and the proposed treaty. 
They visited that country, and made an exhaustive report, 
which was highly favorable to the plan of annexation ; but the 
treaty was constitutionally rejected, having failed to receive 
the necessary two-third vote, and was never brought up again. 
The president declared that he had no policy to enforce against 
the will of the people. He referred to the subject in his last 
annual message to congress, and reviewed the grounds of his 
action, not in order to renew the project, but, as he expressed 
it, "to vindicate my previous action in regard to it." Many 
outrages had been committed in the south against the freed- 
men, and congress spent much time in considering measures 
for the suppression of these crimes. On 31 May, 1870, a bill 
was passed, called the Enforcement act, which empowered the 
president to protect the freedmen in their newly acquired 
rights, and punish the perpetrators of the outrages. Several 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 



379 



supplements to this were subsequently enacted, and a most 
onerous and exacting duty was imposed upon the executive in 
enforcing their provisions. 

The reconstruction of the states recently in rebellion now 
progressed rapidly under the 14th amendment, which guaran- 
teed equal civil rights to all citizens, and in July, 1870, all the 
states had ratified this amendment and been readmitted to the 
Union. The votes of Arkansas and Louisiana were not re- 
ceived by congress in the presidential election of 1872; but 
this was on account of fraud and illegal practices at the polls. 
In the president's annual message to congress, December, 1869, 
he recommended the passage of an act authorizing the funding 
of the public debt at a lower rate of interest. This was fol- 
lowed by the passing of an act, approved 14 July, 1870, which 
authorized the secretary of the treasury to issue bonds to the 
amount of $200,000,000, bearing interest at the rate of 5 per 
cent., $300,000,000 at the rate of 4^/2 per cent., and $ 1,000,000,- 
000 at the rate of 4 per cent. Under this act, and subsequent 
amendments thereto, the national debt has been refunded from 
time to time, until the average rate of actual interest does not 
exceed 3% per cent. 

In 1870 President Grant sent special messages to congress 
urging upon that body the necessity of building up our mer- 
chant marine, and the adopting of methods for increasing 
our foreign commerce, and regarding our relations with Spain, 
which had become 
strained in conse- 
quence of the action 
of Spanish oiificials 
in Cuba. In August 
of this year, soon 
after the beginning 
of the war between 
France and Ger- 
many, he issued a proclamation of neutrality as to both of 
those nations, and defined the duties of Americans toward the 
belligerents. He directed the U. S. minister to France, Elihu 
B. Washburne, to remain at his post in Paris, and extend the 
protection of the American flag to peoples of all nationalities 
who were without the protection of their own flag — an act that 
saved much suffering and loss to individuals. 




38o 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



In his annual message in 1870, the president took strong 
ground in favor of civil service reform, saying: "J would 
have it govern, not the tenure, but the manner of making all 
appointments," and " The present system does not secure the 
best men, and not even fit men, for public place." This sub- 
ject gave rise to a spirited controversy in congress, many de- 
claring the principle to be wholly un-American, and calculated 
to build up a favored class, who would be in great measure 
independent of their executive chiefs, etc. But on 3 March, 
187 1, an act was passed authorizing the president to appoint a 
civil service commission, and to prescribe rules and regula- 
tions governing the appointments of civil officers. He ap- 
pointed seven gentlemen on this commission, selecting those 
who had been most prominent in advocating the measure, and 
transmitted their report to congress, with a special message 
urging favorable action. The plan recommended, which pro- 
vided for competitive examinations, was approved, and was 
put into operation i Jan., 1872. An appropriation was pro- 
cured for the expenses of the commission and the carrying out 
of the plan, but congress gave little countenance to the 
measure. Up to 1874 the president continued to urge that 
body to give legislative sanction to the rules and methods pro- 
posed, and declared that it was impossible to maintain the sys- 
tem without the "positive support of congress." He finally 
notified congress that if it adjourned without action he would 
regard it as a disapproval of the system, and would abandon 
it ; but he continued it until its expenses were no longer pro- 
vided for. The agitation of the question had been productive 
of much good. The seeds thus sown had taken deep root in 
the minds of the people, and bore good fruit in after years. 
In March, 1871, the disorders in the southern states, growing 
out of conflicts between the whites and the blacks, had as- 
sumed such proportions that the president sent a special mes- 
sage to congress requesting "such legislation as shall effect- 
ually secure life, liberty, and property, and the enforcement 
of law in all parts of the United States." On 20 April con- 
gress passed an act that authorized the president to suspend, 
under certain defined circumstances, the writ of habeas corpus 
in any district, and to use the army and navy in suppressing 
insurrections. He issued a proclamation, 4 May, ordering all 
unlawful armed bands to disperse, and, after expressing his 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 381 

reluctance to use the extraordinary power conferred upon him, 
said he would " not hesitate to exhaust the power thus vested 
in the executive, whenever and wherever it shall become 
necessary to do so for the purpose of securing to all citizens 
of the United States the peaceful enjoyment of the rights 
guaranteed to them by the constitution and the laws." As 
this did not produce the desired effect, he issued a proclama- 
tion of warning, 12 Oct., and on the 17th suspended the writ 
of habeas corpus in parts of North and South CaroHna. He 
followed this by vigorous prosecutions, which resulted in send- 
ing a number of prominent offenders to prison, and the out- 
rages soon ceased. The most important measure of foreign 
policy during President Grant's administration was the treaty 
with Great Britain of 8 May, 1871, known as the treaty of Wash- 
ington. Early in his administration the president had begun 
negotiations looking to the settlement of the claims made by 
the United States against Great Britain, arising from the dep- 
redations upon American vessels and commerce by Confederate 
cruisers that had been fitted out or obtained supplies in British 
ports, and the questions growing out of the Canadian fishery 
disputes and the location of our northern boundary-luie at its 
junction with the Pacific ocean, which left the jurisdiction of 
the island of San Juan in controversy. Neither of the two 
last-mentioned questions had been settled by the treaty of 
peace of 1783, or any subsequent treaties. The fishery ques- 
tion was referred to arbitration by three commissioners, one to 
be chosen by the United States, one by Great Britain, and the 
third by the other two, provided they should make a choice 
within a stated time, otherwise the selection to be made by the 
Emperor of Austria. The two commissioners having failed to 
agree, the third was named by the Austrian emperor. The 
aw-ard was unsatisfactory to the United States, the decision of 
the commission was severely criticised, and the dispute has 
from time to time been reopened to the detriment of both 
countries. The San Juan question was referred to the em- 
peror of Germany as arbitrator, with sole power. His award 
fully sustained the claim of the United States. A high joint 
commission had assembled at Washington, composed of Amer- 
ican and English statesmen, which formulated the treaty of 
Washington, and by its terms the claims against Great Britain 
growing out of the operations of the Confederate cruisers, 



382 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



commonly known as the " Alabama claims," were referred to 
a court of arbitration, which held its session at Geneva, Swit- 
zerland. In September, 1872, it awarded the United States 
the sum of $15,500,000, which was subsequently paid by the 
British government. War had at one time seemed imminent, 
on account of the bitterness felt against Great Britain in con- 
sequence of her unfriendly acts during our civil war; but the 
president was a man who had seen so much of the evils of war 
that he became a confirmed believer in pacific measures as 
long as there was hope through such means. In his inaugural 
address he said : " In regard to foreign policy, I would deal 
with nations as equitable law requires individuals to deal with 
each other. ... I would respect the rights of all nations, 
demanding equal respect for our own. If others depart from 
this rule in their dealings with us, we may be compelled to 
follow their precedent." The adoption of the treaty was a 
signal triumph for those who advocated the settlement of in- 
ternational disputes by peaceful methods. The adoption of 
the rules contained in the treaty for the government of 
neutral nations was of far more importance than the money 
award. These rules were to govern the action of the two con- 
tracting parties, and they agreed to bring them to the notice 
of other nations, and invite them to follow the precedent thus 
established. The rules stipulated that a neutral shall not per- 
mit a belligerent to fit out, arm, or equip in its ports any vessel 
that it has reasonable ground to believe is intended to cruise 
or carry on war agamst a nation with which it is at peace 
and that neither of the contracting parties shall permit a bel- 
ligerent to make use of its ports or waters as a base of opera- 
tions against the other. The two nations also agreed to use 
due diligence to prevent any infraction of these rules. 

On 22 May, 1872, the amnesty bill was passed by congress, 
restoring their civil rights to all but about 350 persons in the 
south who had held conspicuous positions under the Confed- 
erate government. President Grant's first administration had 
been vigorous and progressive. Important reforms had been 
inaugurated, and measures of vital moment to the nation, 
both at home and abroad, had been carried to a successful 
conclusion in the face of opposition from some of the most 
prominent men of his own political party. Not a few Repub- 
licans became estranged, feeling that they were being ignored 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 



383 



by the executive, and formed themselves into an organization 
under the name of " Liberal Republicans." This opposition 
resulted in the holding of a convention in Cincinnati, and the 
nomination of Horace Greeley as its candidate for the presi- 
dency, which nomination was afterward adopted by the Demo- 
cratic party. The Republican convention met in Philadelphia, 
5 June, 1872, renominated President Grant, and adopted a 
platform approving the principles advocated by him in his 
previous administration. When the election took place, he 
carried 31 states, with a popular vote of 3,597,070, the largest 
that had ever been given for any president, while Greeley 
carried 6 states with a popular vote of 2,834,079. Grant re- 
ceived 286 electoral votes against 66 that would have been 
cast for Mr. Greeley if he had lived. The 14 votes of Arkan- 
sas and Louisiana were not counted, because of fraud and 
illegality in the election. The canvass had been one of the 
most aggressive and exciting in the history of the country, 
and abounded in personal attacks upon the candidates. Gen. 
Grant, in his inaugural address on 4 March, 1S73, said, in allud- 
ing to the personal abuse that had been aimed at him : " To- 
day I feel that I can disregard it, in view of your verdict, 
which I gratefully accept as my vmdication." His second 
term was a continuation of the policy that had characterized 
his first. His foreign policy was steadfast, dignified, and just, 
always exhibiting a conscientious regard for the rights of for- 
eign nations, and at the same time maintaming the rights of 
our own. He instructed the ministers to China and Japan to 
deal with those powers as " we would wish a strong nation to 
deal with us if we were weak." During the insurrection in the 
island of Cuba, which had lasted for several years, a number 
of American citizens had been arrested by the Spanish authori- 
ties, under the pretence that they had been furnishing aid to 
the insurgents, and American vessels plying in Cuban waters 
had at times been subjected to much mconvenience. Then 
matters culminated in the seizure by Spam, without justifica- 
tion, of an American vessel named the "Virginius." The 
excitement created in the United States by this outrage was 
intense, and many statesmen were clamorous for war. But the 
president believed that pacific measures would accomplish a 
better result, and, by acting with promptness and firmness, he 
soon wrung from Spain ample apology and full reparation. 



384 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENT'S. 




Political troubles were still rife in certain states of the 
south. The result of the election in Louisiana in 1872 was in 
dispute, and armed violence was threatened in that state. 
Early in 1873 the president called the attention of congress to 
the inadequacy of the laws applying to such cases, saying that 
he had recognized the officers installed by the decision of the 
returning-board as representing the de facto government, and 
added : " I am extremely anxious to avoid any appearance of 
undue interference in state affairs, and if congress differs 
from me as to what ought to be done, I respectfully urge its 

immediate decision to 
that effect." Con- 
gress, however, took 
no action, and left 
with the executive the 
sole responsibility of 
dealing with this deli- 
cate question. The 
next year the trouble 
was renewed, and the 
fierce contest that was 
waged between the Republicans under Kellogg, and the Demo- 
crats under McEnery, their respective candidates for the gov- 
ernorship, resulted in armed hostilities. Kellogg, the de facto 
governor, called upon the Federal authority for protection, and 
Gen. Emory was sent to New Orleans with U. S. troops, and 
the outbreak was for a time suppressed. But difficulties arose 
again, and the president sent Gen. Sheridan to Louisiana to 
report upon the situation of affairs, and, if necessary, to take 
command of the troops and adopt vigorous measures to pre- 
serve the peace. Gen. Sheridan became convinced that his duty 
was to sustain the government organized by Kellogg, and, on 
the demand of the governor, he ejected some of McEnery's ad- 
herents from the state capitol. The president submitted the 
whole history of the case to congress, asking for legislation 
defining his duties in the emergency. Getting no legislation 
on the subject, he continued his recognition of the govern- 
ment of which Kellogg was the head, until the election of a 
new governor; but there was afterward no serious trouble in 
Louisiana. Difficulties of the same nature arose in Arkansas 
and Texas, which were almost as perplexing to the executive; 



ULYSSES SIMPSON' GRANT. 



385 



but these attracted less attention before the public. Difficul- 
ties of a somewhat similar kind were encountered also in Mis- 
sissippi, but the president in this case avoided interference on 
the part of the general government. 

In April, 1874, congress passed what was known as the 
** Inflation bill," which increased the paper currency of the 
country, and was contrary to the financial principles that the 
president had always entertained and advocated in his state 
papers. Many of his warmest political supporters had ap- 
proved the measure, and unusual efforts were made to con- 
vince him that it was wise financially and expedient polit- 
ically. The president gave much thought and study to the 
question, and at one time wrote out the draft of a message in 
which he set forth all the arguments that could be made in its 
favor, in order that he might fully weigh them; but, on read- 
mg it over, he became convinced that the reasons advanced 
were not satisfactory, and that the measure would in the end 
be injurious to the true business interests of the country, and 
delay the resumption of specie payment. He therefore re- 
turned the bill to congress, with his veto, 22 April. The argu- 
ments contained in his message were unanswerable, the bill 
was not passed over his veto, and his course was sustained by 
the whole country. Perhaps no act of his administration was 
more highly approved by the people at large, and the result 
amply proved the wisdom of the firmness he exhibited at this 
crisis. About two months after this, in a conversation at the 
executive mansion with Senator Roscoe Conkling, of New 
York, and Senator John P. Jones, of Nevada, the president 
entered at length upon his views concerning the duty of the 
government to take steps looking to the return to specie pay- 
ment. His earnestness on this subject, and the advantages of 
the methods proposed, so impressed the senators that they 
asked him to commit his views to writing. He complied with 
this request by writing a letter addressed to Senator Jones, 
dated 4 June, 1874, in which he began by saying: "I believe 
it a high and plain duty to return to a specie basis at the earli- 
est practical day, not only in compliance with legislative and 
party pledges, but as a step indispensable to national lasting 
prosperity." Then followed his views at length. This letter 
was made public, and attracted much attention, and in Jan- 
uary, 1875, the " Resumption act " was passed, which, to a 



386 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



large extent, embodied the views that had been suggested by 
the president. There were doubts in the minds of many as to 
the ability of the government to carry it into effect ; but it 
proved entirely successful, and the country was finally relieved 
from the stigma of circulating an irredeemable paper currency. 

Durmg 1875 the president had reason to suspect that frauds 
were being practised by government officials in certain states 
in collecting the revenue derived from the manufacture of 
whiskey. He at once took active measures for their detection, 
and the vigorous pursuit and punishment of the offenders. He 
issued a stringent order for their prosecution, closing with the 
famous words, " Let no guilty man escape." Many indict- 
ments soon followed, the ringleaders were sent to the peniten- 
tiary, and an honest collection of the revenue was secured. 
Some of the revenue officials were men of much political influ- 
ence, and had powerful friends. The year for nominating a 
president was at hand, and the excitement ran high. Friends 
of the convicted, political enemies and rivals for the succes- 
sion in his own party, resorted to the most desperate means to 
break the president's power and diminish his popularity. The 
grossest misrepresentations were practised, first in trying to 
bring into question the honesty of his purpose in the prose- 
cution of offenders, and afterward in endeavoring to rob him 
of the credit of his labors after they had purified the revenue- 
service. But these efforts signally failed. 

In September, 1875, Gen. Grant, while attending an army 
reunion in Iowa, offered three resolutions on the subject of 
education, and made a speech in which he used this language : 
" Let us labor for the security of free thought, free speech, free 
press, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and equal 
rights and privileges for all men, irrespective of nationality, 
color, or religion ; encourage free schools ; resolve that not 
one dollar appropriated to them shall go to the support of any 
sectarian school ; resolve that neither state nor nation shall 
support any institution save those where every child may get 
a common-school education, unmixed with any atheistic, pagan, 
or sectarian teaching ; leave the matter of religious teaching 
to the family altar, and keep church and state forever separate." 
This was published broadcast, and was received with marked 
favor by the press and people. 

In 1876 Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, was nominated for 



ULYSSES SIMPSOiV GRANT. 387 

the presidency by the Democrats, and Gen. Rutherford B. 
Hayes, of Ohio, by the Republicans. When the election was 
held in November, the result was in dispute, and a bitter con- 
test was likely to follow in determining which was the legally 
elected candidate. After an exciting debate in congress, a bill 
was passed providing for an electoral commission, to whose deci- 
sion the question was to be referred. It decided in favor of Gen. 
Hayes, and he was inaugurated on 4 March, 1877. During all 
this time the political passions of the people were raised to 
fever-heat, serious threats of violence were made, and the 
business interests of the country were greatly disturbed. Presi- 
dent Grant took no active part in the determination of the 
question, but devoted himself to measures to preserve the 
peace. There were many changes in the cabinet during Grant's 
two administrations. The following is a list of its members, 
giving the order in which they served : Secretaries of state, 
Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois; Hamilton Fish, of New York. 
Secretaries of the treasury, Alexander T. Stewart, of New 
York (appointed, but not confirmed, on account of the discov- 
ery of an old law rendering him ineligible because of his being* 
engaged in the business of an importing merchant) ; George S. 
Boutwell, of Massachusetts; William M. Richardson, of Mas- 
sachusetts; Benjamin H. Bristow, of Kentucky; Lot M. Mor- 
rill, of Maine. Secretaries of war. Gen. John M. Schofield, 
U. S. army ; John A. Rawlins, of Illinois ; William W. Belknap, of 
Iowa; Alonzo Taft, of Ohio; J. Donald Cameron, of Pennsyl- 
vania. Secretaries of the navy, Adolph E. Borie, of Pennsyl- 
vania ; George M. Robeson, of New Jersey. Postmasters- 
General, John A. J. Creswell, of Maryland ; Marshall Jewell, 
of Connecticut ; James A. Tyner, of Indiana. Attorneys-Gen- 
eral, Ebenezer R. Hoar, of Massachusetts; Amos T. Akerman, 
of Georgia ; George H. Williams, of Oregon ; Edwards Pierre- 
pont, of New York ; Alonzo Taft, of Ohio. Secretaries of the 
interior, Gen. Jacob D. Cox, of Ohio ; Columbus Delano, of 
Ohio ; Zachariah Chandler, of Michigan. 

During President Grant's administrations the taxes had been 
reduced over $300,000,000, the national debt over $450,000,- 
000, the interest on the debt from $160,000,000 to $100,000,000 ; 
the balance of trade had changed from $130,000,000 against 
this country to $130,000,000 in its favor ; the reconstruction 
of the southern states had been completed; the first trans- 
26 



388 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



continental railroad had been finished ; all threatening for- 
eign complications had been satisfactorily settled; and all 
exciting national questions seemed to have been determined 
and removed from the arena of political contests. Gen. Grant, 
while president, exhibited the same executive ability as in the 
army, msisting upon a proper division of labor among the dif- 
ferent branches of the government, leaving the head of each 
department great freedom of action, and holding him to a strict 
accountability for the conduct of the affairs of his office. He 
decided with great promptness all questions referred to him, 




and suggested many measures for improving the government 
service, but left the carrying out of details to the proper chiefs. 
While positive in his views, and tenacious of his opinions when 
they had once been formed after due reflection, he listened 
patiently to suggestions and arguments, and had no pride of 
opinion as to changing his mind, if convincing reasons were 
presented to him. He was generally a patient listener while 
others presented their views, and seldom gave his opinions until 
they were thoroughly matured ; then he talked freely and with 
great force and effect. He was one of the most accessible of 
all the presidents. He reserved no hours that he could call 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 



389 



his own, but was ready to see all classes of people at all times, 
whether they were high in position or from the ranks of the 
plain people. His patience was one of the most characteristic 
traits of his character, and his treatment of those who came in 
contact with him was frank and cordial to the highest degree. 
His devotion to his friends was proverbial, and his loyalty to 
others commanded loyalty from them, and accounted, in great 
measure, for the warmth and devotion of his followers. Where- 
ever he placed trust he reposed rare confidence, until it was 
shaken by actual proofs of betrayal. This characteristic, of his 
nature led him at times to be imposed upon by those who were 
not worthy of the faith he placed in them ; but persons that 
once lost his confidence never regained it. 

After retiring from the presidency, 4 March, 1877, Gen. 
Grant decided to visit the countries of the Old World, and 
on 17 May he sailed from Philadelphia for Liverpool on the 
steamer " Indiana," accompanied by his wife and one son. 
His departure was the occasion for a memorable demonstra- 
tion on the Delaware, Distinguished men from all parts of the 
country had assembled to bid him good-by, and accompanied 
him down the river. A fleet of naval and commercial vessels 
and river boats, decorated with brilliant banners, convoyed his 
steamer, crowds lined the shores greeting him with cheers, 
bells rang, whistles sounded from mills and factories, and in- 
numerable flags saluted as he passed. On his arrival in Liv- 
erpool, 28 May, he received the first of a series of ovations 
in foreign lands scarcely less cordial and enthusiatsic than 
those which had been accorded him in his own country. The 
river Mersey was covered with vessels displaying the flags of 
all nations, and all vied with each other in their demonstrations 
of welcome. He visited the places of greatest interest in Great 
Britain, and was accorded the freedom of her chief cities, which 
means the granting of citizenship. He received a greater 
number of such honors than had ever been bestowed even upon 
the most illustrious Englishman. In London he was received 
by the queen and the Prince of Wales, and afterward visited 
her majesty at Windsor Castle. While he was entertained in a 
princely manner by royalty, the most enthusiastic greetings 
came from the masses of the people, who everywhere turned 
out to welcome him. His replies to the numerous addresses 
of welcome were marked by exceeding good taste, and were 



,no LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

read with much favor by his own countrymen. Upon leaving 
England he visited the continent, and the greetings there from 
crowned heads and common people were repetitions of the re- 
ceptions he had met ever since he landed in Europe. The 
United States man-of-war " Vandalia " had been put at his 
disposal, and on board that vessel he made a cruise in the 
^[editerranean, visiting Italy, Egypt, and the Holy Land. He 
sailed from Marseilles for India, 23 Jan., 1879, arrived at Bom- 
bay, 12 Feb., and from there visited Calcutta and many other 
places of interest. His journey through the country called 
forth a series of demonstrations which resembled the greetings 
to an emperor passing through his own realms. He sailed in 
the latter part of March for Burmah, and afterward visited the 
Malacca peninsula, Siam, Cochin China, and Hong-Kong, arriv- 
ing at the latter place on 30 April. He made a tour into the 
interior of China, and was everywhere received with honors 
greater than had ever been bestowed upon a foreigner. At 
Pekin, Prince Kung requested him to act as sole arbitrator in 
the settlement of the dispute between that country and Japan 
concerning the Loo Choo islands. His plans prevented him 
from entering upon the duties of arbitrator, but he studied the 
questions involved and gave his advice on the subject, and the 
matters in dispute were afterward settled without war. On 
21 June he reached Nagasaki, where he was received by the 
imperial officials and became the guest of the mikado. The 
attention shown him while in Japan exceeded in some of 
its features that which he had received in any of the other 
countries included in his tour. The entertainments prepared 
in his honor were memorable in the history of that empire. He 
sailed from Yokohama, 3 Sept., and reached San Francisco on 
the 20th. He had not visited the Pacific coast since he had 
served there as a lieutenant of infantry. Preparations had 
been made for a reception that should surpass any ever accorded 
to a public man in that part of the country, and the demonstra- 
tion in the harbor of San Francisco on his arrival formed a 
pageant equal to anything of the kind seen in modern times. 
On his journey east he was tendered banquets and public recep- 
tions, and greeted with every manifestation of welcome in the 
different cities at which he stopped. Early in 1880 he trav- 
elled through some of the southern states and visited Cuba and 
Mexico. In the latter country he was hailed as its staunchest 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 



391 



and most pronounced friend in the days of its struggle against 
foreign usurpation, and the people testified their gratitude by 
extending to him every possible act of personal and official 
courtesy. On his return he took his family to his old home in 




Galena, 111. A popular movement had begun looking to his 
renomination that year for the presidency, and overtures were 
made to him to draw him into an active canvass for the purpose 
of accomplishing this result; but he declined to take any part 
in the movement, and preferred that the nomination should 



392 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



either come to him unsolicited or not at all. When the Repub- 
lican convention met in Chicago in June, 1880, his name was 
presented, and for thirty-six ballots he received a vote that 
only varied between 302 and 313. Many of his warmest ad- 
mirers were influenced against his nomination by a traditional 
sentiment against a third presidential term, and after a long 
and exciting session the delegates to the convention compro- 
mised by nominating Gen. James A. Garfield. Gen. Grant de- 
voted himself loyally during this political canvass to the suc- 
cess of the party that had so often honored him, and contrib- 
uted largely by his efforts to the election of the candidate. 

In August, 1881, Gen. Grant bought a house in New York, 
where he afterward spent his winters, while his summers were 
passed at his cottage at Long Branch. On Christmas eve, 1883, 
he slipped and fell upon the icy sidewalk in front of his house, 
and received an injury to his hip, which proved so severe that 
he never afterward walked without the aid of a crutch. Find- 
ing himself unable with his income to support his family prop- 
erly, he had become a partner in a banking-house in which one 
of his sons and others were interested, bearing the name of 
Grant and Ward, and invested all his available capital in the 
business. He took no part in the management, and the affairs 
of the firm were left almost entirely in the hands of the junior 
partner. In May, 1884, the firm without warning suspended. 
It was found that two of the partners had been practising a 
series of unblushing frauds, and had robbed the general and 
his family of all they possessed, and left them hopelessly bank- 
rupt. Until this time he had refused all solicitations to write 
the history of his military career for publication, intending to 
leave it to the official records and the historians of the war. 
Almost his only contribution to literatupe was an article entitled 
" An Undeserved Stigma," in the " North American Review " 
for December, 1882, which he wrote as an act of justice to Gen. 
Fitz-John Porter, whose case he had personally mvestigated. 
But now he was approached by the conductors of the " Century " 
magazine with an invitation to write a series of articles on his 
principal campaigns, which he accepted, for the purpose of 
earning money, of which he was then greatly in need, and he 
accordingly produced four articles for that periodical. Find- 
ing this a congenial occupation, and receiving handsome offers 
from several publishers, he set himself to the task of preparing 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 



393 



two volumes of personal memoirs, in which he told the story 
of his life down to the close of the war, and proved himself a 
natural and charming writer, and a valuable contributor to 
history. The contract for the publication of the book was 
made on 27 Feb., 1885, and the work appeared about a year 
afterward. The sales were enormous, having reached up to 
this time 312,000 sets. The amount that Mrs. Grant has already 
(July, 1894) received as her share of the profits is upwards of 
$440,000, paid in two checks, of $200,000 and $150,000, and 
several smaller amounts, the largest sum ever received by an 
author or his representatives from the sale of any single work. 
It is expected by the publishers that the amount of half a 
million of dollars will be ultimately paid to the general's family. 
In the summer of 1884 Gen. Grant complained of a soreness in 
the throat and roof of the mouth. In August he consulted a 
physician, and a short time afterward the disease was pro- 
nounced to be cancer at the root of the tongue. The sym- 
pathies of the entire nation were now aroused, messages of 
hope and compassion poured in from every quarter, and on 4 
March, 1885, congress passed a bill creating him a general on 
the retired list, thus restoring him to his former rank in the 
army. He knew that his disease would soon prove fatal. He 
now bent all his energies to the completing of his "Memoirs," 
in order that the money realized from the sale might provide 
for his family. He summoned all his will power to this task, 
and nothing in his career was more heroic than the literary 
labor he now performed. Hovering between life and death, 
suffering almost constant agony, and speechless from disease, 
he struggled through his daily task, and laid down his pen only 
four days before his death. At this time the last portrait was 
made of the great soldier, which appears on page 361. 

On 16 June, 1885, he was removed to Mount McGregor, near 
Saratoga, N. Y., where he passed the remaining five weeks of 
his life. (See illustration on page 384.) On Thursday, 23 July, 
at eight o'clock in the morning. Grant passed away, surrounded 
by his family. A public funeral was held in New York on Sat- 
urday, 8 Aug., which was the most magnificent spectacle of the 
kind ever witnessed in this country. The body was deposited 
in a temporary tomb in Riverside park, overlooking the Hud- 
son river, until the tomb seen in the illustration on the following 
page was completed and formally dedicated with imposing cere- 



394 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



monies, 27 April, 1897. In Chicago a bronze equestrian statue 
of the general has been erected in Lincoln park, overlooking 
Lake Michigan. The illustration on page 388 is a representa- 
tion of the statue, and following on page 391 is a view of the 
eastern facade of the structure which is surmounted by the 
statue. The large collection of swords, gold-headed canes, 
medals, rare coins, and other articles that had been presented 
to Gen. Grant passed into the possession of William H. Van- 
derbilt as security in a financial transaction shortly before the 
general's death. After that event Mr. Vanderbilt returned the 
articles to Mrs. Grant, by whom they were given to the United 

States government, 
and the entire col- 
lection is now in the 
National museum at 
Washington. Among 
the many portraits 
of the great soldier, 
perhaps the best are 
those painted by 
Healy for the Union 
league club about 
1865, and another 
executed in Paris in 
1877, now in the pos- 
session of the family, 
those painted in 1882 
by Le Clear for the White House at Washington and the Calu- 
met club of Chicago, and one executed by Ulke for the U. S. 
war department, where is also to be seen a fine marble bust, 
executed in i872-'3, by Hiram Powers. General Grant's birth- 
day is now celebrated by public dinners and other entertain- 
ments in many of the principal cities of the country, like those 
of Washington and Lincoln. See " Military History of Ulysses 
S. Grant, from April, 1861, to April, 1865," by Adam Badeau (3 
vols.. New York, i867-'8i) ; "Around the World with General 
Grant," by John Russell Young (1880) ; " Personal Memoirs of 
U. S. Grant," written by himself (2 vols., i885-'6; revised and 
enlarged edition, 1895) ; " General Grant "(Great Commanders 
Series), by James Grant Wilson (1897) ; and "General Grant's 
Letters to a Friend " (Boston, 1897). 




ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 



395 




His wife, Julia Dent, born in St. Louis, Mo., 26 Jan., 1826, 
is the daughter of Frederick and Ellen Wrenshall Dent. At the 
age of ten years she was sent to Miss Moreau's boarding-school, 
where she remained for eight years. Soon after her return home 
she met Lieut. Grant, then of the 4th infantry, stationed at Jef- 
ferson barracks at St. Louis, and in the spring of 1844 became 
engaged to him. Their marriage, 
deferred by the war with Mexico, 
took place on 22 Aug., 1848. The 
first four years of her married life 
were spent at Detroit, Mich., and at 
Sackett's Harbor, N. Y., where Capt. 
Grant was stationed. In 1852 Mrs. 
Grant returned to her father's home 
in St. Louis, her health not being 
sufficiently strong to accompany her 
husband to California, whither his 
command had been ordered. Two 
years later he resigned from the 
army and joined his family in St. 
Louis. During the civil war Mrs. Grant passed much of the 
time with Gen. Grant, or near the scene of action, he sending 
for her whenever opportunity permitted. She was with him 
at City Point in the winter of i864-'5, and accompanied him 
to Washington when he returned with his victorious army. 
She saw her husband twice inaugurated president of the 
United States, and was his companion in his journey around 
the world. She herself has said : " Having learned a lesson 
from her predecessor, Penelope, she accompanied her Ulysses 
in his wanderings around the world." After Gen. Grant's death 
a bill was passed by congress giving his widow a pension of 
$5,000 a year. She is the fourth to whom such a pension has 
been granted, the others being Mrs. Tyler, Mrs. Polk, and Mrs. 
Garfield. Four children were born to her — three sons, Freder- 
ick Dent, Ulysses, Jr., and Jesse, and one daughter, Nellie, 
who, in 1874, married Algernon Sartoris, and went with him to 
live in his English home near Southampton. Since his death 
Mrs. Sartoris, with her three children, has returned to her native 
land. Mrs. Grant resides in Washington, D. C. 

Their eldest son, Frederick Dent, born in St. Louis, Mo., 
30 May, 1850, accompanied his father during the Vicksburg 



396 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



campaign, and was in five battles before he was tliirteen years 
of age. In 1867 he entered the U. S. military academy, where 
he was graduated in 187 1 and assigned to the 4th cavalry. 
During the summer of 1871 he was employed on the Union 
Pacific and Colorado Central railroads as an engineer. Late 
in 1871 he visited Europe with Gen. Sherman, and in 1872 was 
detailed to command the escort to the party that was making 
the preliminary survey for the Southern Pacific railroad. In 
1873 he was assigned to the staff of Gen. Sherman as lieuten- 
ant-colonel, in which capacity he served eight years, accom- 
panying nearly every expedition against the Indians. He was 
with his father in 1879 in the oriental part of the journey round 
the world, and in 1881 resigned his commission in the army. 
During Harrison's administration (1889-1893) Col. Grant was 
minister to Austria and afterward a police commissioner of 
New York, in which city he resides with his family. His son, 
Ulysses, has been appointed by President McKinley a cadet at 
the U. S. military academy, his grandfather having but a few 
days before his death written a letter, addressed to his suc- 
cessor who should be President of the United States at the 
time his namesake attained the necessary age, requesting the 
appointment for him. 




'b,-HBHn]]JrNewT 




D Appleton & Co. 



RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES. 

Rutherford Birchard Hayes, nineteenth president of the 
United States, was born in Delaware, Ohio, 4 Oct., 1822. His 
father had died in July, 1822, leaving his mother in modest but 
easy circumstances. The boy received his first education in the 
common schools, and began early the study of Latin and Greek 
with Judge Sherman Finch, of Delaware. Then he was sent to 
an academy at Norwalk, Ohio, and in 1837 to Isaac Webb's »^ 
school, at Middletown, Conn., to prepare for college. In the au- 
tumn of 1838 he entered Kenyon college, at Gambler, Ohio. 
He excelled in logic, mental and moral philosophy, and mathe- 
matics, and also made his mark as a debater in the literary so- 
cieties. On his graduation in August, 1842, he was awarded the 
valedictory oration, with which he won much praise. Soon 
afterward he began to study law in the office of Thomas Spar- 
row, at Columbus, Ohio, and then attended a course of law 
lectures at Harvard university, entering the law-school on 22 
Aug., 1843, and finishing his studies there in January, 1845. As 
a law student he had the advantage of friendly intercourse with 
Judge Story and Prof. Greenleaf, and he also attended the lec- 
tures of Longfellow on literature and of Agassiz on natural sci- 
ence, prosecuting at the same time the study of French and Ger- 
man. On 10 May, 1845, after due examination, he was admitted 
to practice in the courts of Ohio as an attorney and counsellor at 
law. He established himself first at Lower Sandusky (now Fre- 
mont), where, in April, 1846, he formed a law partnership with 
Ralph P. Buckland, then a member of congress. In Novem- 
ber, 1848, having suffered from bleeding in the throat, Mr. 
Hayes went to spend the winter in the milder climate of Texas, 
where his health was completely restored. Encouraged by the 
good opinion and advice of professional friends to seek a larger 
field of activity, he established himself, in the winter of i849-'5o, 



398 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDEN'J'S. 



in Cincinnati. His practice at first being light, he earnestly and 
systematically continued his studies in law and literature, also 
enlarging the circle of his acquaintance by becoming a member 
of various societies, among others the literary club of Cincin- 
nati, in the social and literary entertainments of which at that 
time such men as Salmon P. Chase, Thomas Ewing, Thomas 
Corwin, Stanley Matthews, Moncure D. Conway, Manning F. 
Force, and others of note, were active participants. He won 
the respect of the profession, and attracted the attention of the 
public as attorney in several criminal cases which gained some 
celebrity, and gradually increased his practice. 

On 30 Dec, 1852, he married Miss Lucy W. Webb, daughter 
of Dr. James Webb, a physician of high standing in Chillicothe, 
Ohio. In January, 1854, he formed a law partnership with H. 
W. Corwine and William K. Rogers. In 1856 he was nominated 
for the office of common pleas judge, but declined. In 1858 
the city council of Cincinnati appomted him city solicitor, to 
fill a vacancy caused by death, and in the following year he was 
elected to the same office at a popular election by a majority of 
over 2,500 votes. Although he performed his duties to the 
general satisfaction of the public, he was, in April, 1861, de- 
feated for re-election as solicitor, together with the whole 
ticket. Mr. Hayes, ever since he was a voter, had acted with 
the Whig party, voting for Henry Clay in 1844, for Gen. Taylor 
in 1848, and for Gen. Scott in 1852. Having from his youth 
always cherished anti-slavery feelings, he jomed the Republican 
party as soon as it was organized, and earnestly advocated the 
election of Fremont in 1856, and of Abraham Lincoln in i860. 
At a great mass-meeting, held in Cincinnati immediately after 
the arrival of the news that the flag of the United States had 
been fired upon at Fort Sumter, he was made chairman of a 
committee on resolutions to give voice to the feelings of the 
loyal people. His literary club formed a military company, of 
which he was elected captain, and this club subsequently fur- 
nished to the National army more than forty officers, of whom 
several became generals. On 7 June, 1861, the governor of 
Ohio appointed Mr. Hayes a major of the 23d regiment of Ohio 
volunteer infantry, and in July the regiment was ordered into 
West Virginia. On 19 Sept., 1861, Maj. Hayes was appointed 
by Gen. Rosecrans judge advocate of the Department of Ohio, 
the duties of which office he performed for about two months. 



RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD MAYES. 



399 



On 24 Oct., 1861, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant- 
colonel. On 14 Sept., 1862, in the battle of South Mountain, 
he distinguished himself by gallant conduct in leading a charge 
and in holding his position at the head of his men, after being 
severely wounded in his left arm, until he was carried from the 
field. His regiment lost nearly half its effective force in the 
action. On 24 Oct., 1862, he was appointed colonel of the 
same regiment. He spent some time at his home while under 
medical treatment, and returned to the field as soon as his 
wound was healed. In July, 1863, while taking part in the 
operations of the National army in southwestern Virginia, Col. 
Hayes caused an expedition of two regiments and a section of 
artillery, under his own command, to be despatched to Ohio for 
the purpose of checking the raid of the Confederate Gen. John 
Morgan, and he aided materially in preventing the raiders from 
recrossing the Ohio river and in compelling Morgan to surren- 
der. In the spring of 1864 Col. Hayes commanded a brigade 
in Gen. Crook's expedition to cut the principal lines of com- 
munication between Richmond and the southwest. He again 
distinguished himself by conspicuous bravery at the head of 
his brigade in storming a fortified position on the crest of 
Cloyd mountain. In the first battle of Winchester, 24 July, 
1864, commandmg a brigade in Gen. Crook's division, Col. 
Hayes was ordered, together with Col. James Mulligan, to 
charge what proved to be a greatly superior force. Col. Mul- 
ligan fell, and Col. Hayes, flanked and pressed in front by 
overwhelming numbers, conducted the retreat of his brigade 
with great intrepidity and skill, checking the pursuit as soon 
as he had gained a tenable position. He took a creditable 
part in the engagement at Berryville and in the second 
battle of Winchester, 19 Sept., 1864, where he performed a 
feat of extraordinary bravery. Leading an assault upon a bat- 
tery on an emnience, he found in his way a morass over fifty 
yards wide. Advancing at the head of his brigade, he plunged 
in first, and, his horse becoming mired at once, he dismounted 
and waded across alone under the enemy's fire. Waving his 
cap, he signalled to his men to come over, and, when about 
forty had joined him, he rushed upon the battery and took it 
after a hand-to-hand fight with the gunners, the enemy having 
deemed the battery so secure that no infantry supports had 
been placed near it. At Fisher's Hill, in pursuing Gen. Early, 



400 



LIVES OF THE FRESIDEiVTS. 



on 22 Sept., 1864, Col. Hayes, then in command of a division, 
executed a brilliant flank movement over mountains and 
through woods difificult of access, took many pieces of artil- 
lery, and routed the enemy's forces in his front. 

At the battle of Cedar Creek, 19 Oct., 1864, the conduct of 
Col. Hayes attracted so much attention that his commander. 
Gen. Crook, on the battle-field took him by the hand, saying : 
"Colonel, from this day you will be a brigadier-general." 
The commission arrived a few days afterward, and on 13 
March, 1865, he received the rank of brevet major-general 
" for gallant and distinguished services during the campaign 
of 1864 in West Virginia, and particularly at the battles of 
Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, Va." Of his military services 
Gen. Grant, in the second volume of his memoirs, says : " On 
more than one occasion in these engagements Gen. R. B. 
Hayes, who succeeded me as president of the United States, 
bore a very honorable part. His conduct on the field was 
marked by conspicuous gallantry, as well as the display of 
qualities of a higher order than mere personal daring. Hav- 
ing entered the army as a major of volunteers at the begin- 
ning of the war. Gen. Hayes attained, by his meritorious serv- 
ice, the rank of brevet major-general before its close." While 
Gen. Hayes was in the field, in August, 1864, he was nomi- 
nated by a Republican district convention at Cincinnati, in the 
second district of Ohio, as a candidate for congress. When a 
friend suggested to him that he should take leave of absence 
from the army in the field for the purpose of canvassing the 
district, he answered: ''Your suggestion about getting a fur- 
lough to take the stump was certainly made without reflection. 
An officer fit for duty, who at this crisis would abandon his 
post to electioneer for a seat in congress, ought to be scalped." 
He was elected by a majority of 2,400. The Ohio soldiers in 
the field nominated him also for the governorship of his state. 

After the war Gen. Hayes returned to civil life, and took 
his seat in congress on 4 Dec, 1865. He was appointed chair- 
man of the committee on the library. On questions connected 
with the reconstruction of the states lately in rebellion he 
voted with his party. He earnestly supported a resolution 
declaring the sacredness of the public debt and denouncing 
repudiation in any form; also a resolution commending Presi- 
dent Johnson for declining to accept presents, and condemn- 



RUTHERFORD B IRC HARD HAYES. 



401 



ing the practice as demoralizing in its tendencies. He op- 
posed a resolution favoring an increase of the pay of members. 
He also introduced in the Republican caucus a set of resolu- 
tions declaring that the only mode of obtaining from the 
states lately in rebellion irreversible guarantees was by consti- 
tutional amendment, and that an amendment basing representa- 
tion upon the number of voters, instead of population, ought to 
be acted upon without delay. These resolutions marked the 
line of action of the Republicans. In August, 1866, Gen. Hayes 
was renominated for congress by acclamation, and, after an 
active canvass, was re-elected by the same majority as before. 
He supported the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. In the 
house of representatives he won the reputation, not of an orator, 
but of a working legislator and a man of calm, sound judgment. 
In June, 1867, the Republican convention of Ohio nominated 
him for the governorship. The Democrats had nominated Judge 
Allen G. Thurman. The question of negro suffrage was boldly 
pushed to the foreground by Gen. Hayes in an animated can- 
vass, which ended in his election, and that of his associates on 
the Republican ticket. But the negro-suffrage amendment to 
the state constitution was defeated at the same time by 50,000 
majority, and the Democrats carried the legislature, which 
elected Judge Thurman to the United States senate. In his 
inaugural address Gov. Hayes laid especial stress upon the 
desirability of taxation in proportion to the actual value of 
property, the evils of too much legislation, the obligation to 
establish equal rights without regard to color, and the neces- 
sity of ratifying the 14th amendment to the federal constitu- 
tion. In his message to the legislature, delivered in November, 
1868, he recommended amendments to the election laws, pro- 
viding for the representation of minorities in the boards of the 
judges and clerks of election, and for the registration of all the 
lawful voters prior to an election. He also recommended a 
comprehensive geological survey of the state, which was 
promptly begun. In his second annual message he warmly 
urged such changes in the penal laws, as well as in prison dis- 
cipline, as would tend to promote the moral reformation of 
the culprit together with the punishment due to his crime. 

In June, 1869, Gov. Hayes was again nominated by the 
Republican state convention for the governorship, there being 
no competitor for the nomination. The Democratic candidate 



402 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



was George H. Pendleton. The platform adopted by the 
Democratic state convention advocated the repudiation of the 
interest on the U. S. bonds unless they be subjected to tax- 
ation, and the payment of the national debt in greenbacks. 
In the discussions preceding the election, Gov. Hayes pro- 
nounced himself unequivocally in favor of honestly paying the 
national debt and of an honest money system. He was elected 
by a majority of 7,500. In his second inaugural address, de- 
livered on 10 Jan., 1870, he expressed himself earnestly against 
the use of public offices as party spoils, and suggested that the 
constitution of the state be so amended as to secure the intro- 
duction of a system making qualification, and not political 
services and influence, the chief test in determining appoint- 
ments, and giving subordinates in the civil service the same 
permanence of place that is enjoyed by officers of the army 
and navy. He also advocated the appointment of judges, by 
the executive, for long terms, with adequate salaries, as best 
calculated to " afford to the citizen the amplest possible secu- 
rity that impartial justice will be administered by an independ- 
ent judiciary." In his correspondence with members of con- 
gress, he urged a monthly reduction of the national debt as 
more important than a reduction of taxation, the abolition of 
the franking privilege, and the passage of a civil-service-re- 
form law. In his message addressed to the legislature on 3 Jan., 
187 1, he recommended that the policy embodied in that pro- 
vision of the state constitution which prohibited the state from 
creating any debt, save in a few exceptional cases, be extended 
to the creation of public debts by county, city, and other local 
authorities, and further that for the remuneration of public 
officers a system of fixed salaries, without fees and perqui- 
sites be adopted. Complaint having been made by the state 
commissioner of railroads and telegraphs that many " clear 
and palpable violations of law " had been committed by rail- 
road companies, Gov. Hayes asked, in his message of 1872, 
that a commission of five citizens be organized, with ample 
power to investigate the management of railroad companies, 
and to report the information acquired with a recommendation 
of such measures as they might deem expedient. He also, be- 
lieving that " publicity is a great corrector of official abuses," 
recommended that it be made the duty of the governor, on 
satisfactory information that the public good required an in- 



RUTHERFORD BIRCH A RD HA YES, 



403 



vestigation of the affairs of any public office or the conduct of 
any public officer, whether state or local, to appoint one or 
more citizens, who should have ample powers to make such 
investigation. Gov. Hayes's admmistration of the executive 
office of his state won general approval, without distinction of 
party. At the expiration of his term, when a senator of the 
United States was to be elected, and several Republican mem- 
bers of the legislature were disinclined to vote for John Sher- 
man, who controlled a majority of the Republican votes. Gov. 
Hayes was approached with the assurance that he could be 
elect-ed senator by the anti-Sherman Republicans with the aid 
of the Democrats in the legislature; but he positively declined. 
In July, 1872, Gov. Hayes was strongly urged by many Re- 
publicans in Cincinnati to accept a nomination for congress. 
Wishing to retire permanently from political life, he declined ; 
but when he was nominated in spite of his protests, he finally 
yielded his consent. In his speeches during the canvass he put 
forward as the principal issues an honest financial policy and 
civil-service reform. Several sentences on civil-service reform 
that he pronounced 
in a speech at Glen- 
dale, on 4 Sept., 1872, 
were to appear again 
in his letter accept- 
ing the nomination 
for the presidency 
four years later. In 
1872 the current 
of public sentiment 
in Cincinnati ran 

against the Republican party, and Gov. Hayes was defeated in 
the election by a majority of 1,500. President Grant offered him 
the ofifice of assistant treasurer of the United States at Cincin- 
nati, which he declined. In 1873 he established his home at 
Fremont, in the northern part of Ohio, with the firm intention of 
final retirement from public life. (The accompanying illustration 
is a view of his home in Fremont.) In 1874 he came into posses- 
sion of a considerable estate as the heir of his uncle, Sardis 
Birchard. In 1S75 the Republican state convention again nomi- 
nated him for the governorship. He not only had not desired 
that nomination, but whenever spoken or written to about it, 
27 




404 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



uniformly replied that his retirement was absolute, and that 
neither his interests nor his tastes permitted him to accept. But 
the circumstances were such as to overcome his reluctance. In 
1873 the Democratic candidate, William Allen, was elected gov- 
ernor of Ohio. His administration was honest and economi- 
cal, he was personally popular, and his renomination by the 
Democratic party in 1875 seemed to be a foregone conclu- 
sion. It was equally certain that the Democratic convention 
would declare itself in favor of a circulation of irredeemable 
paper money, and against the resumption of specie payments. 
Under such circumstances the Republicans felt themselves 
compelled to put into the field against him the strongest 
available candidate they had, and a large majority of them 
turned at once to Gov. Hayes. But he had expressed himself 
in favor of Judge Taft, of Cincinnati, and urged the delegates 
from his county to vote for that gentleman, which they did. 
Notwithstanding this, the convention nommated Hayes on the 
first ballot by an overwhelming majority. When he, at Fre- 
mont, received the telegraphic announcement of his nomina- 
tion, he at once wrote a letter declinmg the honor ; but upon 
the further information that Judge Taft's son, withdrawing the 
name of his father, had moved in the convention to make the 
nomination unanimous, he accepted. Thus he became the 
leader of the advocates of a sound and stable currency in that 
memorable state canvass, the public discussions in which did 
so much to mould the sentiments of the people, especially 
in the western states, with regard to that important subject. 
The Democratic convention adopted a platform declaring that 
the volume of the currency (meaning the irredeemable paper 
currency of the United States) should be made and kept equal 
to the wants of trade ; that the national bank currency 
should be retired, and greenbacks issued in its stead ; and that 
at least half of the customs duties should be made payable in 
the government paper money. The Republicans were by no 
means as united in favor of honest money as might have been 
desired, and Gov. Hayes was appealed to by many of his party 
friends not to oppose an increase of the paper currency ; but he 
resolutely declared his opinions in favor of honest money in a 
series of speeches, appealing to the honor and sober judgment 
of the people with that warmth of patriotic feeling and that good 
sense in the statement of political issues which, uttered in 



RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES. 405 

language always temperate and kindly, gave him the ear of 
opponents as well as friends. The canvass, on account of the 
national questions involved in it, attracted attention in all 
parts of the country, and Gov. Hayes was well supported by 
speakers from other states. Another subject had been thrust 
upon the people of Ohio by a legislative attempt to divide 
the school fund between Catholics and Protestants, and Hayes 
vigorously advocated the cause of secular education. After 
a spirited struggle he carried the election by a majority of 
5,500. He had thus not only won the distinction of being 
elected three times governor of his state, but, as the success- 
ful leader in a campaign for an honest money system, he was 
advanced to a very prominent position among the public men 
of the country, and his name appeared at once among those of 
possible candidates for the presidency. 

While thus spoken of and written to, he earnestly insisted 
upon the maintenance by his party of an uncompromising po- 
sition concerning the money question. To James A. Garfield 
he wrote in March, 1876 : " The principal question will again be 
irredeemable paper as a permanent policy, or a policy which 
seeks a return to coin. My opinion is decidedly against yield- 
ing a hair's-breadth." On 29 March, 1876, the Republican state 
convention of Ohio passed a resolution to present Rutherford 
B. Hayes to the National Republican convention for the nomi- 
nation for president, and instructing the state delegation to 
support him. The National Republican convention met at 
Cincinnati on 14 June, 1876. The principal candidates before 
it were James G. Blaine, Oliver P. Morton, Benjamin H. Bris- 
tow, Roscoe Conkling, Gov. Hayes, and John F. Hartranft. 
The name of Hayes was presented to the convention by Gen. 
Noyes in an exceedingly judicious and well-tempered speech, 
dwelling not only upon his high personal character, but upon 
the fact that he had no enemies and possessed peculiarly the 
qualities " calculated best to compromise all difficulties and to 
soften all antagonisms." Hayes had sixty-one votes on the 
first ballot, 378 being necessary to a choice, and his support 
slowly but steadily grew until on the seventh ballot the oppo- 
sition to Mr. Blaine, who had been the leading candidate, 
concentrated upon Hayes, and gave him the nomination, 
which, on motion of William P. Frye, of Maine, was made 
unanimous. 



4o6 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



In his letter of acceptance, dated 8 July, 1876, Mr. Hayes 
laid especial stress upon three points, civil-service reform, the 
currency, and the pacification of the south. As to the civil 
service, he denounced the use of public offices for the purpose 
of rewarding party services, and especially for services rendered 
to party leaders, as destroying the independence of the separate 
departments of the government, as leading directly to extrava- 
gance and official incapacity, and as a temptation to dishonesty. 
He declared that a reform, "thorough, radical, and complete," 
should lead us back to the principles and practices of the 
founders of the government, who " neither expected nor de- 
sired from the public officer any partisan service," who meant 
"that public officers should owe their whole service to the 
government and to the people," and that "the officer should 
be secure in his tenure so long as his personal character re- 
mained untarnished, and the performance of his duties satis- 
factory." As to the currency, he regarded " all the laws of the 
United States relating to the payment of the public indebted- 
ness, the legal-tender notes included, as constituting a pledge 
and moral obligation of the government, which must in good 
faith be kept." He therefore insisted upon as early as possible 
a resumption of specie payments, pledging himself to " approve 
every appropriate measure to accomplish the desired end," and 
to "oppose any step backward." As to the pacification of the 
south, he pointed out, as the first necessity, " an intelligent 
and honest administration of the government, which will pro- 
tect all classes of citizens in all their political and private 
rights." He deprecated "a division of political parties resting 
merely upon distinctions of race, or upon sectional lines," as 
always unfortunate and apt to become disastrous. He ex- 
pressed the hope that with "a hearty and generous recognition 
of the rights of all by all," it would be "practicable to pro- 
mote, by the influence of all legitimate agencies of the general 
government, the efforts of the people of those states to obtain 
for themselves the blessings of honest and capable local gov- 
ernment." He also declared his " inflexible purpose," if elected, 
not to be a candidate for election to a second term — a pledge 
which he never thought of breaking. 

The Democrats nominated for the presidency Samuel J. 
Tilden, who, having, as governor of New York, won the repu- 
tation of a reformer, attracted the support of many Republi- 



RUTHERFORD BIRCH A RD HAYES. 



407 



cans who were dissatisfied with their party. The result of the 
election became the subject of acrimonious dispute. Both 
parties claimed to have carried the states of Louisiana, South 
Carolina, and Florida. Each charged fraud upon the other, 
the Republicans affirming that Republican voters, especially- 
colored men, all over the south had been deprived of their 
rights by intimidation or actual force, and that ballot-boxes 
had been foully dealt with, and the Democrats insisting that 
their candidates in Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina had 
received a majority of the votes actually cast, and that the Re- 
publican canvassing boards were preparing to falsify the result 
in making up the returns. The friends of both the candidates 
for the presidency sent prominent men into the states in dis- 
pute, for the purpose of watching the proceedings of the can- 
vassing boards. The attitude maintained by Mr. Hayes per- 
sonally was illustrated by a letter addressed by John Sherman 
at New Orleans, which was brought to light by a subsequent 
congressional investigation. It was dated at Columbus, Ohio, 
27 Nov., 1876, and said : " I am greatly obliged for your letter 
of the 23d. You feel, I am sure, as I do about this whole 
business. A fair election would have given us about forty 
electoral votes at the south — at least that many. But we are 
not to allow our friends to defeat one outrage and fraud by 
another. There must be nothmg crooked on our part. Let 
Mr. Tilden have the place by violence, intimidation, and fraud, 
rather than undertake to prevent it by means that will not 
bear the severest scrutiny." The canvassing boards of the 
states in question declared the Republican electors chosen, 
which gave Mr. Hayes a majority of one vote in the electoral 
college, and certifications of these results were sent to Wash- 
ington by the governors of the states. But the Democrats 
persisted in charging fraud; and other sets of certificates, 
certifying the Democratic electors to have been elected, ar- 
rived at Washington. To avoid a deadlock, which might have 
happened if the canvass of the electoral votes had been left to 
the two houses of congress (the senate having a Republican 
and the house of representatives a Democratic majority), an 
act, advocated by members of both parties, was passed to refer 
all contested cases to a commission composed of five senators, 
five representatives, and five judges of the supreme court; the 
decision of this commission to be final, unless set aside by a 



4o8 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

concurrent vote of the two houses of congress. The commis- 
sion, refusing to go behind the certified returns, decided in each 
contested case by a vote of eight to seven in favor of the Re- 
publican electors, beginning with Florida on 7 Feb., and Ruth- 
erford B. Hayes was at last, on 2 March, declared duly elected 
president of the United States. Thus ended the long and 
painful suspense. The decision was generally acquiesced in, 
and the popular excitement subsided quickly. 

President Hayes was inaugurated on 5 March, 1877. In 
his inaugural address he substantially restated the principles 
and views of policy set forth in his letter of acceptance, adding 
that, while the president of necessity owes his election to the 
suffrage and zealous labors of a party, he should be always 
mindful that " he serves his party best who serves his country 
best," and declaring also, referring to the contested election, 
that the general acceptance of the settlement by the two great 
parties of a dispute, " in regard to which good men differ as to 
the facts and the law, no less than as to the proper course to 
be pursued in solving the question in controversy," was an 
"occasion for general rejoicing." The cabinet that he ap- 
pointed consisted of William M. Evarts, secretary of state ; 
John Sherman, secretary of the treasury; George W. McCrary, 
secretary of war ; Richard W. Thompson, secretary of the 
navy; David M. Key, postmaster-general; Charles Devens, 
attorney-general ; and Carl Schurz, secretary of the interior. 
The administration began under very unfavorable circum- 
stances, as general business stagnation and severe distress had 
prevailed throughout the country since the crisis of 1873. As 
soon as the cabinet was organized, the new president addressed 
himself to the composition of difficulties in several southern 
states. He had given evidence of his conciliatory disposition 
by taking into his cabinet a prominent citizen of the south 
who had been an officer in the Confederate army and had 
actively opposed his election. In both South Carolina and 
Louisiana there were two sets of state officers and two legis- 
latures, one Republican and the other Democratic, each claim- 
ing to have been elected by a majority of the popular vote. 
The presence of Federal troops at or near the respective state- 
houses had so far told in favor of the Republican claimants, 
while the Democratic claimants had the preponderance of sup- 
port from the citizens of substance and influence. President 



RUTHERFORD BIRCH A RD HAYES. 



409 



Hayes was resolved that the upholding of local governments 
in the southern states by the armed forces of the United States 
must come to an end, and that, therefore, the Federal troops 
should be withdrawn from the positions they then occupied ; 
but he was at the same time anxious to have the change ef- 
fected without any disturbance of the peace, and without im- 
perilling the security or rights of any class of citizens. His 
plan was to put an end by conciliatory measures to the lawless 
commotions and distracting excitements which, ever since the 
close of the war, had kept a large part of the south in constant 
turmoil, and thus to open to that section a new career of peace 
and prosperity. He obtained from the southern leaders in 
congress assurances that they would use their whole influence 
for the maintenance of good order and the protection of the 
rights and security of all, and for a union of the people in a 
mutual understanding that, as to their former antagonisms, by- 
gones should be treated as by-gones. To the same end he in- 
vited the rival governors of South Carolina, Daniel H. Cham- 
berlain and Wade Hampton, to meet him in conference at 
Washington ; and he appointed a commission composed of 
eminent gentlemen, Democrats as well as Republicans — Gen. 
Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut ; Charles B. Lawrence, of 
Illinois; John M. Harlan, of Kentucky; Ex-Gov. John C. 
Brown, of Tennessee ; and Wayne McVeagh, of Pennsylvania 
— to go to Louisiana and there to ascertain what were " the 
real impediments to regular, loyal, and peaceful procedures 
under the laws and constitution of Louisiana," and further, by 
conciliatory influences to endeavor to remove " the obstacles 
to an acknowledgment of one government within the state," 
or, if that were found impracticable, at least "to accomplish 
the recognition of a single legislature as the depositary of the 
representative will of the people of Louisiana." The two rival 
governors — S. B. Packard, Republican, and Francis T. Nichols, 
Democrat — stoutly maintained their respective claims; but the 
two legislatures united into one, a majority of the members of 
both houses, whose election was conceded on both sides meet- 
ing and organizing under the auspices of the Nichols govern- 
ment. President Hayes, having received the necessary assur- 
ances of peace and good will, issued instructions to withdraw 
the troops of the United States from the state-house of South 
Carolina on 10 April, 1877, and from the State-house of Louisi- 



4IO 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



ana on 20 April, 1877, whereupon in South Carolina the state 
government passed peaceably into the hands of Wade Hamp- 
ton, and in Louisiana into those of Francis T. Nichols. The 
course thus pursued by President Hayes was, in the north as 
well as in the south, heartily approved by a large majority of the 
people, to whom the many scandals springing from the inter- 
ference of the general government in the internal affairs of the 
southern states had become very obnoxious, and who desired 
the southern states to be permitted to work out their own 
salvation. But this policy was also calculated to loosen the 
hold that the Republican party had upon the southern states, 
and was therefore disliked by many Republican politicians. 

President Hayes began his administration with earnest ef- 
forts for the reform of the civil service. In some of the de- 
partments competitive examinations were resumed for the ap- 
pointment of clerks. In filling other offices, political influence 
found much less regard than had been the custom before. 
The pretension of senators and representatives that the " pat- 
ronage " in their respective states and districts belonged to 
them was not recognized, although in many cases their advice 
was taken. The president's appointments were generally ap- 
proved by public opinion, but he was blamed for appointing 
persons connected with the Louisiana returning-board. On 26 
May, 1877, he addressed a letter to the secretary of the treas- 
ury, expressing the wish "that the collection of the revenues 
should be free from partisan control, and organized on a 
strictly business basis, with the same guarantees for efficiency 
and fidelity in the selection of the chief and subordinate officers 
that would be required by a prudent merchant," and that 
" party leaders should have no more influence in appointments 
than other equally respectable citizens." On 22 June, 1877, he 
issued the following executive order: "No officer should be 
required or permitted to take part in the management of politi- 
cal organizations, caucuses, conventions, or election campaigns. 
Their right to vote or to exoress their views on public 
questions, either orally or through the press, is not denied, 
provided it does not interfere with the discharge of their 
official duties. No assessment for political purposes, on of- 
ficers or subordinates, should be allowed. This rule is ap- 
plicable to every department of the civil service. It should 
be understood by every officer of the general government that 



RUTHERFORD BIRCH A RD HAYES. 411 

he is expected to conform his conduct to its requirements." 
The policy thus indicated found much favor with the people 
generally, and not a few men in public life heartily approved of 
it. But the bulk of the professional politicians, who saw them- 
selves threatened in their livelihood, and many members of 
congress, who looked upon government patronage as a part of 
their perquisites, and the distribution of ofifices among their 
adherents as the means by which to hold the party together 
and to maintain themselves in public place, became seriously 
alarmed and began a systematic warfare upon the president 
and his cabinet. 

The administration was from the beginning surrounded 
with a variety of perplexities. Congress had adjourned on 3 
March, 1877, without making the necessary appropriations for 
the support of the army, so that from 30 June the army would 
remain without pay until new provision could be made. The 
president, therefore, on 5 May, 1877, called an extra session of 
congress to meet on 15 Oct. But in the mean time a part of 
the army was needed for active service of a peculiarly trying 
kind. In July strikes broke out among the men employed 
upon railroads, beginning on the line of the Baltimore and 
Ohio railroad and then rapidly spreading over a large part of 
the northern states. It is estimated that at one time more 
than 100,000 men were out. Grave disorders occurred, and 
the president found himself appealed to by the governors of 
West Virginia, of Maryland, and of Pennsylvania to aid them 
with the Federal power in suppressing domestic violence, 
which the authorities of their respective states were not able 
to master. He issued his proclamations on 18, 21, and 23 July, 
and sent into the above-mentioned states such detachments of 
the Federal army as were available. Other detachments were 
ordered to Chicago. Wherever the troops of the United States 
appeared, however small the force, they succeeded in restoring 
order without bloodshed — in fact, without meeting with any 
resistance, while the state militia in many instances had bloody 
encounters with the rioters, sometimes with doubtful result. 

In his first annual message, 3 Dec, 1877, President Hayes 
congratulated the country upon the results of the policy he had 
followed with regard to the south. He said : " All apprehen- 
sion of danger from remitting those states to local self-govern- 
ment is dispelled, and a most salutary change in the minds of 



412 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



the people has begun and is in progress in every part of that 
section of the country once the theatre of unhappy civil strife ; 
substituting for suspicion, distrust, and aversion, concord, friend- 
ship, and patriotic attachment to the Union. No unprejudiced 
mind will deny that the terrible and often fatal collisions which 
for several years have been of frequent occurrence, and have 
agitated and alarmed the public mind, have almost entirely 
ceased, and that a spirit of mutual forbearance and hearty 
national interest has succeeded. There has been a general re- 
establishment of order, and of the orderly administration of 
justice; instances of remaining lawlessness have become of 
rare occurrence ; political turmoil and turbulence have disap- 
peared; useful industries have been resumed ; public credit in 
the southern states has been greatly strengthened and the en- 
couraging benefit of a revival of commerce between the sec- 
tions of country lately embroiled in civil war are fully enjoyed." 
He also strongly urged the resumption of specie payments. As 
to the difficulties to be met in this respect he said : " I must 
adhere to my most earnest conviction that any wavering in 
purpose or unsteadiness in methods, so far from avoiding or 
reducing the inconvenience inseparable from the transition 
from an irredeemable to a redeemable paper currency, would 
only tend to increased and prolonged disturbance in values, 
and, unless retrieved, must end in serious disorder, dishonor, 
and disaster in the financial affairs of the government and of 
the people." As to the restoration of silver as a legal tender, 
which was at the time being agitated, he insisted that " all the 
bonds issued since 12 Feb., 1873, when gold became the only 
unlimited legal-tender metallic currency of the country, are 
justly payable in gold coin, or in coin of equal value"; and 
that "the bonds issued prior to 1873 were issued at a time 
when the gold dollar was the only coin in circulation or con- 
templated by either the government or the holders of the bonds 
as the coin in which they were to be paid." He added : " It is 
far better to pay these bonds in that coin than to seem to take 
advantage of the unforeseen fall in silver bullion to pay in a 
new issue of silver coin thus made so much less valuable. The 
power of the United States to coin money and to regulate the 
value thereof ought never to be exercised for the purpose of 
enabling the government to pay its obligations in a coin of less 
value than that contemplated by the parties when the bonds 



RUTHERFORD BIRCH A RD HA YES. 



413 



were issued." He favored the coinage of silver, but only in a 
limited quantity, as a legal tender to a limited amount. He 
expressed the fear " that only mischief and misfortune would 
flow from a coinage of silver dollars with the quality of un- 
limited legal tender, even in private transactions. Any expec- 
tation of temporary ease from an issue of silver coinage to 
pass as a legal tender, at a rate materially above its commer- 
cial value, is, I am persuaded, a delusion." As to the reform 
of the civil service he reiterated what he had said in his letter 
of acceptance and inaugural address, and insisted that the con- 
stitution imposed upon the executive the sole duty and respon- 
sibility of the selection of Federal officers who, by law, are 
appointed, not elected ; he deprecated the practical confusion, 
in this respect, of the duties assigned to the several depart- 
ments of the government, and earnestly recommended that 
congress make a suitable appropriation to be immediately avail- 
able for the civil service commission, which was still in legal 
existence, but had become inactive because no money had been 
provided for its expenses. He also recommended efficient leg- 
islation for the work of civilization among the Indian tribes, 
and for the prevention of the destruction of the forests on lands 
of the United States. 

The recommendations thus made by President Hayes were 
not heeded by congress. No appropriation was made for the 
civil-service commission ; on the contrary, the dissatisfaction 
of Republican senators and representatives with the endeav- 
ors of the administration in the direction of civil-service re- 
form found vent in various attacks upon the president and the 
heads of departments. The nomination of one of the foremost 
citizens of New York for the office of collector of customs at 
that port was rejected by the senate. The efforts of the ad- 
ministration to check depredations on the timber-lands of the 
United States, and to prevent the destruction of the forests, 
were denounced as an outlandish policy. Instead of facilitat- 
ing the resumption of specie payments, the house of represent- 
atives passed a bill substantially repealing the resumption act. 
A resolution was offered by a Republican senator, and adopted 
by the senate, declaring that to restore the coinage of 412'/^- 
grain silver dollars and to pay the government bonds, principal 
and interest, in such silver coin, was "not in violation of the 
public faith, nor in derogation of the rights of the public cred- 



414 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



itor." A " silver bill" passed both houses providing that a 
silver dollar should be coined at the several mints of the United 
States, of the weight of 412% grains, which, together with all 
silver dollars of like weight and fineness coined theretofore by 
the United States, should be a full legal tender for all debts 
and dues, public and private, except where otherwise expressly 
stipulated in the contract, and directing the secretary of the 
treasury to buy not less than two million dollars' worth of silver 
bullion a month, and cause it to be coined into dollars as fast as 
purchased. President Hayes returned this bill with his veto, 
mainly on the ground that the commercial value of the silver 
dollar was then worth eight to ten per cent, less than its nom- 
inal value, and that its use as a legal tender for the payment of 
pre-existing debts would be an act of bad faith. He said : " As 
to all debts heretofore contracted, the silver dollar should be 
made a legal tender only at its market value. The standard 
of value should not be changed without the consent of both 
parties to the contract. National promises should be kept with 
unflinching fidelity. There is no power to compel a nation to 
pay its just debts. Its credit depends on its honor. A nation 
owes what it has led or allowed its creditors to expect. I can- 
not approve a bill which in my judgment authorizes the viola- 
tion of sacred obligations." But the bill was passed over the 
veto in both houses by majorities exceeding two thirds. During 
the same session the house of representatives, which had a 
Democratic majority, on motion of Clarkson N. Potter, of New 
York, resolved to make an inquiry into the allegations of 
fraud said to have been committed in Louisiana and Florida in 
making the returns of the votes cast for presidential electors 
at the election of 1876. The Republicans charged that the in- 
vestigation was set on foot for the purpose of ousting Mr. 
Hayes from the presidency and putting in Mr. Tilden. The 
Democrats disclaimed any such intention. The result of the 
investigation was an elaborate report from the Democratic 
majority of the committee, impugning the action of the return- 
ing boards in Louisiana and Florida as fraudulent, and a report 
from the Republican minority dissenting from the conclusions 
of the majority as unwarranted by the evidence, and alleging 
that the famous "cipher despatches" sent to the south by 
friends of Mr. Tilden showed " that the charges of corruption 
were but the slanders of foiled suborners of corruption." The 



RUTHERFORD BIRCH A RD HAYES. 



415 



investigation led to no further action, the people acquiescing 
in the decision of the electoral commission, and the counting 
of the electoral vote by congress based thereon, as irreversible. 

President Hayes was again obliged to resort to the employ- 
ment of force by the outbreak of serious disturbances caused 
by bands of desperadoes in the territory of New Mexico, which 
amounted to organized resistance to the enforcement of the laws. 
He issued, on 7 Oct., 1878, a proclamation substantially putting 
the disturbed portion of New Mexico under martial law, and 
directing the U. S. forces stationed there to restore and main- 
tain peace and order, which was speedily accomplished. 

In his message of 2 Dec, 1878, President Hayes found him- 
self obliged to say that in Louisiana and South Carolina, and 
in some districts outside of those states, " the records of the 
recent [congressional] elections compelled the conclusion that 
the rights of the colored voters had been overridden, and their 
participation in the elections not been permitted to be either 
general or free." He added that, while it would be for con- 
gress to examine into the validity of the claims of members to 
their seats, it became the duty of the executive and judicial 
departments of the government to inquire into and punish 
violations of the laws, and that every means in his power would 
be exerted to that end. At the same time he expressed his 
" absolute assurance that, while the country had not yet reached 
complete unity of feeling and confidence between the com- 
munities so lately and so seriously estranged, the tendencies 
were in that direction, and with increasing force." He depre- 
cated all interference by congress with existing financial legis- 
lation, with the confident expectation that the resumption of 
specie payments would be " successfully and easily maintained," 
and would be " followed by a healthful and enduring revival of 
business prosperity." On i Jan., 1879, the resumption act 
went into operation without any difficulty. No preparation 
had been made for that event until the beginning of the Hayes 
administration. The secretary of the treasury, in 1877, began 
to accumulate coin, and, notwithstanding the opposition it 
found, even among Republicans, this policy was firmly pursued 
by the administration until the coin reserve held against the 
legal-tender notes was sufficient to meet all probable demands. 
Thus the country was lifted out of the bbg of an irredeemable 
paper currency. The operation was facilitated by increased 



4i6 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



exports and a general revival of business. Although his first 
nominee for the office of collector of customs in New York had 
been rejected by the senate, President Hayes made a second 
nomination for the same place, as well as for that of naval 
officer of the same port, and in a special message addressed to 
the senate on 31 Jan., 1879, he gave the following reasons for 
the suspension of the incumbents, Chester A. Arthur and 
Alonzo B. Cornell, who had failed to conform their conduct to 
the executive order of 22 June, 1877: "For a long period of 
time it [the New York custom-house] has been used to manage 
and control political affairs. The officers suspended by me 
are, and for several years have been, engaged in the active 
personal management of the party politics of the city and state 
of New York. The duties of the offices held by them have 
been regarded as of subordinate importance to their partisan 
work. Their offices have been conducted as part of the politi- 
cal machinery under their control. They have made the cus- 
tom-house a centre of partisan political management." For like 
reasons, President Hayes removed an influential party manager 
in the west, the postmaster of St. Louis. With the aid of Demo- 
cratic votes in the senate, the new nominations were confirmed. 
President Hayes then addressed a letter to the new collector of 
customs at New York, Gen. Edwin A. Merritt, instructing him to 
conduct his office " on strictly business principles, and according 
to the rules which were adopted, on the recommendation of the 
civil-service commission, by the administration of Gen. Grant." 
He added : " Neither my recommendation, nor that of the secre- 
tary of the treasury, nor the recommendation of any member of 
congress, or other influential person, should be specially regarded. 
Let appointments and removals be made on business principles, 
and by fixed rules." Thus the system of competitive examina- 
tions, which under the preceding admniistration had been aban- 
doned upon the failure of congress to make appropriations for 
the civil-service commission, was, by direction of President 
Hayes, restored in the custom-house of New York. A like sys- 
tem was introduced in the New York post-office under the 
postmaster, Thomas L. James. 

Congress passed a bill " to restrict the immigration of 
Chinese to the United States," requiring the president immedi- 
ately to give notice to the government of China of the abro- 
gation of certain articles of the treaty of 1858 between the 



RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HA YES. 



417 



United States and China, which recognized " the inherent and 
inalienable right of a man to change his home and allegiance," 
and provided that " the citizens of the United States visiting or 
residing in China shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities, 
or exemptions, in respect to travel or residence, as may there 
be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the most favored 
nation," and reciprocally that Chinese subjects should enjoy 
the same advantages in the United States. The bill further 
limited the number of Chinese passengers that might be 
brought to this country by any one vessel to fifteen. President 
Hayes, on i March, 1879, returned the bill to congress with his 
veto. While recognizing some of the difficulties created by 
the immigration of the Chinese as worthy of consideration, he 
objected to the bill mainly on the ground that it was incon- 
sistent with existing treaty relations between the United States 
and China; that a treaty could be abrogated or modified by 
the treaty-making power, and not, under the constitution, by 
act of congress; and that "the abrogation of a treaty by one 
of the contracting parties is justifiable only upon reasons both 
of the highest justice and of the highest necessity " ; and " to 
do this without notice, without fixing a day in advance when 
the act shall take effect, without affording an opportunity to 
China to be heard, and without the happening of any grave un- 
foreseen emergency, would be regarded by the enlightened 
judgment of mankind as the denial of the obligation of the 
national faith." 

The 45th congress adjourned on 4 March, 1879, without 
making the usual and necessary appropriations for the expen- 
ses of the government. The house, controlled by a Democratic 
majority, attached to the army appropriation bill a legislative 
provision substantially repealing a law passed in 1865, under 
President Lincoln, which permitted the use of troops " to keep 
the peace at the polls " on election-days. The house also at- 
tached to the legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation 
bill a repeal of existing laws providing for the appointment of 
supervisors of election and special deputy marshals to act at 
elections of members of congress. The Republican majority 
of the senate struck out these legislative provisions, and, the 
two houses disagreeing, the appropriation bills failed. Presi- 
dent Hayes, on 4 March, 1879, called an extra session of con- 
gress to meet on 18 March. The Democrats then had a major- 



4i8 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



ity in the senate as well as in the house, and attached to the 
army appropriation bill the same legislative provision on which 
in the preceding congress the two houses had disagreed. 
President Hayes returned the bill with his veto on 29 April, 
1879. He took the ground that there was ample legislation to 
prevent military interference at elections ; that there never had 
been any such interference since the passage of the act of 
1865, and there was no danger of any ; that if the proposed leg- 
islation should become law, there would be no power vested 
in any officer of the government to protect from violence the 
officers of the United States engaged in the discharge of their 
duties ; that the states may employ both military and civil 
power to keep the peace, and to enforce the laws at state elec- 
tions, but that it was now proposed to deny to the United 
States even the necessary civil authority to protect the national 
elections. He pointed out also that the tacking of legislative 
provisions to appropriation bills was a practice calculated to 
be used as a means of coercion as to the other branches of the 
government, and to make the house of representatives a despotic 
power. Congress then passed the army appropriation bill with- 
out the obnoxious clause, but containing the provision that no 
money appropriated should be paid for the subsistence, equip- 
ment, transportation, or compensation of any portion of the 
army of the United States " to be used as a police force to 
keep the peace at the polls at any election held within any 
state." This President Hayes approved. The two houses 
then passed a separate bill, substantially embodying the provi- 
sion objected to by the president in the vetoed army-appropria- 
tion bill. This " act to prohibit military interference at elec- 
tions" President Hayes returned with his veto. He said : 
" The true rule as to the employment of military force at the 
elections is not doubtful. No intimidation or coercion should 
be allowed to influence citizens in the exercise of their right to 
vote, whether it appears in the shape of combinations, of evil- 
disposed persons, or of armed bodies of the militia of a state, 
or of the military force of the United States. The elections 
should be free from all forcible interference, and, as far as 
practicable, from all apprehension of such interference. No 
soldiery, either of the United States or of the state militia, 
should be present at the polls to perform the duties of the 
ordinary civil police force. There has been and will be no 



RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HA YES. 



419 



violation of this rule under orders from me during this admin- 
istration. But there should be no denial of the right of the 
national government to employ its military force on any day 
and at any place in case such employment is necessary to en- 
force the constitution and laws of the United States." The 
legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation bill passed by 
congress contained a legislative provision not, indeed, abolish- 
ing the supervisors of election, but divesting the government 
of the power to protect them, or to prevent interference with 
their duties, or to punish any violation of the law from which 
their power was derived. President Hayes returned this bill 
also with his veto, referring to his preceding veto message as 
to the impropriety of tacking general legislation to appropria- 
tion bills. He further pointed out that, in the various legal 
proceedings under the law sought to be repealed, its constitu- 
tionality had never been questioned ; and that the necessity of 
such a law had been amply demonstrated by the great election 
frauds in New York city in 1868. He added: "The great 
body of the people of all parties want free and fair elections. 
They do not think that a free election means freedom from the 
wholesome restraints of law, or that the place of an election 
should be a sanctuary for lawlessness and crime." If any op- 
pression, any partisan partiality, had been shown in the execu- 
tion of the existing law, he added, efficient correctives of the 
mischief should be applied ; but as no congressional election 
was immediately impending, the matter might properly be re- 
ferred to the regular session of congress. 

In a bill "making appropriations for certain judicial ex- 
penses," passed by congress, it was attempted, not indeed to re- 
peal the election laws, but to make their enforcement impossible 
by prohibiting the payment of any salaries, fees, or expenses 
under or in virtue of them, and providing also that no contract 
should be made, and no liability incurred, under any of their 
provisions. President Hayes vetoed this bill, 23 June, 1879, 
on the ground that as no bill repealing the election laws had 
been passed over his veto, those laws were still in existence, 
and the present bill, if it became a law, would make it impos- 
sible for the executive to perform his constitutional duty to 
see to it that the laws be faithfully executed. On the same 
ground the president returned with his veto a bill making ap- 
propriations to pay fees of United States marshals and their 
28 



420 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



general deputies, in which the same attempt was made to de- 
feat the execution of the election laws by withholding the 
necessary funds as well as the power to incur liabilities under 
them. All the appropriation bills were passed without the ob- 
noxious provisions except the last. President Hayes appealed 
to congress in a special message on 30 June, 1879, the end of 
the fiscal year, not to permit the marshals and their general 
deputies, officers so necessary to the administration of justice, 
to go unprovided for, but in vain. The attorney-general then 
admonished the marshals to continue in the performance of 
their duties, and to rely upon future legislation by congress, 
which would be just to them. 

In his annual message of i Dec, 1879, President Hayes 
found occasion to congratulate the country upon the success- 
ful resumption of specie payments and upon "a very great 
revival of business." He announced a most gratifying reduc- 
tion of the interest on the public debt by refunding at lower 
rates. He strongly urged congress to authorize the secretary 
of the treasury to suspend the silver coinage, as the cheaper 
coin, if forced into circulation, would eventually become the sole 
standard of value. He also recommended the retirement of 
United States notes with the capacity of legal tender in private 
contracts, it being his " firm conviction that the issue of legal- 
tender paper money based wholly upon the authority and 
credit of the government, except in extreme emergency, is 
without warrant in the constitution, and a violation of sound 
financial principles." He recommended a vigorous enforce- 
ment of the laws against polygamy in the territory of Utah. 
He presented a strong argument in favor of civil-service re- 
form, pointed out the successful trial of the competitive 
system in the interior department, the post-office department, 
and the post-office and the custom-house in New York, and 
once more earnestly urged that an appropriation be made for 
the civil-service commission, and that all persons in the public 
service be protected by law against assessments for party ends. 
But these recommendations remained without effect. 

On 12 Feb., 1880, President Hayes issued a second proclama- 
tion — the first having been put forth in April, 1879 — against 
the attempts made by lawless persons to possess themselves 
for settlement of lands within the Indian territory, and effect- 
ive measures were taken to expel the invaders. On 8 March, 



RUTHERFORD BIRCH ARD HAYES. 



421 



1880, he sent to the house of representatives a special message 
communicating correspondence in relation to the interoceanic 
canal, which had passed between the American and foreign 
governments, and expressing his own opinion on the subject 
as follows : " The policy of this country is a canal under Amer- 
ican control. The United States cannot consent to the sur- 
render of this control to any European power, or to any com- 
bination of European powers. If existing treaties between 
the United States and other nations, or if the rights of sover- 
eignty or property of other nations, stand in the way of this 
policy — a contingency which is not apprehended — suitable steps 
should be taken by just and liberal negotiations to promote 
and establish the American policy on this subject, consistently 
with the rights of the nations to be affected by it. An inter- 
oceanic canal across the American isthmus will be the great 
ocean thoroughfare between our Atlantic and our Pacific 
shores, and virtually a part of the coast-line of the United 
States. No other great power would, under similar circum- 
stances, fail to assert a rightful control over a work so closely 
and vitally affecting its interest and welfare." Congress passed 
a deficiency appropriation bill, which contained provisions ma- 
terially changing, and, by implication, repealing certain im- 
portant parts of the election laws. President Hayes, on 4 May, 
1880, returned the bill with his veto, whereupon congress made 
the appropriation without re-enacting the obnoxious clauses. 

In November, 1880, was held the election that put James 
A. Garfield into the presidential chair and proved conclusively 
that the Republican party had gained largely in the confidence 
of the public during the Hayes administration. In his last an- 
nual message, 6 Dec, 1880, President Hayes again mentioned 
the occurrence of election disorders in a part of the Union, 
and the necessity of their repression and correction, but de- 
clared himself satisfied, at the same time, that the evil was 
diminishing. Again he argued in favor of civil-service reform, 
especially competitive examinations, which had been conducted 
with great success in some of the executive departments and 
adopted by his direction in the larger custom-houses and post- 
offices. He reiterated his recommendation of an appropriation 
for the civil-service commission,' and of a law against political 
assessments. He also, to stop the interference of members of 
congress with the civil service, suggested that an act be passed 



422 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



"defining the relations of members of congress with regard to 
appointments to office by the president," and that the tenure- 
of'-office act be repealed. He recommended " that congress 
provide for the government of Utah by a governor and judges, 
or commissioners, appointed by the president and confirmed by 
the senate — a government analogous to the provisional gov- 
ernment established for the territory northwest of the Ohio, by 
the ordinance of 1787," dispensing with an elected territorial 
legislature. He announced that on 17 Nov. two treaties had 
been signed at Peking by the commissioners of the United 
States and the plenipotentiaries of the emperor of China — one 
purely commercial, and the other authorizing the government 
of the United States, whenever the immigration of Chinese 
laborers threatened to affect the interests of the country, to 
regulate, limit, or suspend such immigration, but not alto- 
gether to prohibit it, said government at the same time promis- 
ing to secure to Chinese permanently or temporarily residing 
in the United States the same protection and rights as to citi- 
zens or subjects of the most favored nation. President Hayes 
further suggested the importance of making provision for 
regular steam postal communication with the Central and 
South American states ; he recommended that congress, by 
suitable legislation and with proper safeguards, supplement the 
local educational funds in the several states where the grave 
duties and responsibilities of citizenship had been devolved 
upon uneducated people, by devoting to the purpose grants of 
lands, and, if necessary, by appropriations from the treasury of 
the United States; he repeated his recommendations as to the 
suspension of the silver coinage, and as to the retirement from 
circulation of the United States notes, and added one that 
provision be made by law to put Gen. Grant upon the retired 
list of the army, with rank and pay befitting the great services 
he had rendered to the country. 

On I Feb., 1880, he addressed a special message to congress 
in relation to the Ponca Indians, in which he pointed out the 
principles that should guide our Indian policy: preparation for 
citizenship by industrial and general education ; allotment of 
land in severalty, inalienable for a certain period ; fair com- 
pensation for Indian lands not required for allotment ; and, 
finally, investment of the Indians, so educated and provided 
for, with the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. His 



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dL, 






RUTHERFORD BIRCH A RD HAYES. 



423 



last communication to congress, 3 March, 1881, was a message 
returning with his veto a bill " to facilitate the refunding of 
the national debt," which contained a provision seriously im- 
pairing the value and tending to the destruction of the national 
banking system. On the following day he assisted at the 
inauguration of his successor. 

The administration of President Hayes, although much at- 
tacked by the politicians of both parties, was on the whole 
very satisfactory to the people at large. By withdrawing the 
Federal troops from the southern state-houses, and restoring 
to the people of those states practical self-government, it pre- 
pared the way for that revival of patriotism among those late- 
ly estranged from the Union, that fraternal feeling between 
the two sections of the country, and the wonderful material 
advancement of the south which we now witness. It con- 
ducted with wisdom and firmness the preparations for the re- 
sumption of specie payments, as well as the funding of the 
public debt at lower rates of interest, and thus facilitated the 
development of the remarkable business prosperity that con- 
tinued to its close. While in its endeavors to effect a thorough 
and permanent reform of the civil service there were conspic- 
uous lapses and inconsistencies, it accomplished important 
and lasting results. Not only without any appropriations of 
money and without encouragement of any kind from congress, 
but in the face of the decided hostility of a large majority of 
its members, the system of competitive examinations was suc- 
cessfully applied in some of the executive departments at 
Washington, and in the great government offices at New York, 
thus proving its practicability and usefulness. The removal 
by President Hayes of some of the most powerful party mana- 
gers from their offices, avowedly on the ground that the offices 
had been used as a part of the political machinery, was an 
act of high courage, and during his administration there was 
far less meddling with party politics on the part of officers of 
the government than at any period since Andrew Jackson's 
time. The success of the Republican party in the election of 
1880 was largely due to the general satisfaction among the 
people with the Hayes administration. 

On the expiration of his term, ex-President Hayes retired 
to his home at Fremont, Ohio. He was the recipient of vari- 
ous distinctions. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon 



424 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



him by Kenyon college, Harvard University, Yale college, and 
Johns Hopkins university. He was made commander of the 
military order of the Loyal legion, the first president of the 
Society of the Army of West Virginia, and president of the 
23d regiment Ohio volunteers association. Much of his time 
was devoted to benevolent and useful enterprises. He was 
president of the trustees of the John F. Slater education-fund, 
one of the trustees of the Peabody education fund, president 
of the National prison-reform association, an active member of 
the National conference of corrections and charities, a trustee 
of the Western Reserve university at Cleveland, Ohio, of the 
Wesleyan university of Delaware, Ohio, of Mount Union col- 
lege, at Alliance, Ohio, and of several other charitable and 
educational institutions. On the occasion of a meeting of the 
National prison-reform association, held at Atlanta, Ga., in 
November, 1886, he was received with much popular enthusi- 
asm, and greeted by an ex-governor of Georgia as one to 
whom, more than to any other, the people were indebted for 
the era of peace and union which they now enjoyed, and by 
the governor. Gen. John B. Gordon, as the man who had 
"made a true and noble effort to complete the restoration of 
the Union by restoring fraternal feeling between the estranged 
sections." Thus he devoted the last years of his life to digni- 
fied occupations and endeavors, mostly of a philanthropic 
character, which were congenial to his nature and kept him in 
active contact with public-spirited men, by whom he was highly 
esteemed. He died after a short illness at his home in Fre- 
mont, Ohio, 17 Jan., 1893. While he lived, the prejudice against 
him among some of his fellow-citizens, owing to the cloud which 
hung over his title to the presidency, had never entirely disap- 
peared ; but after his death even his former opponents ad- 
mitted that there had never been the slightest reason for hold- 
ing him responsible for the conduct of the returning boards in 
the southern states, or for the decision of the electoral com- 
mission which awarded the presidency to him, and that, when he 
had been declared elected by the competent authority, it was 
not only his right but his duty as a good citizen to accept the 
presidential office, and thus to put an end to one of the most 
perilous crises in the history of the republic. It was also uni- 
versally recognized that the conduct of his administration had 
been conspicuously clean and blameless, as well as fruitful of 



RUTHERFORD BIR CHARD HA YES. 



425 



good results, and that he rendered the country especially valu- 
able service by the statesmanlike wisdom of his conciliatory 
course toward the south, by the unflinching and defiant firm- 
ness with which he upheld sound principles of national finance, 
and by his efforts in the line of civil-service reform, after his 
predecessor, yielding to the impetuous pressure of his party 
friends, had abandoned the whole system. He was not a man 
of genius, but of a strong and clear intellect, quick perceptions, 
and far more than ordinary acquirements, animated with the 
most conscientious conceptions of duty and the highest patri- 
otic motives. The uprightness of his character and the ex- 
quisite purity of his life, public as well as domestic, exercised a 
conspicuously wholesome influence not only upon ihe. personnel 
of the governmental machinery, but also upon the social atmos- 
phere of the national capital while he occupied the White 
House. See " Life, Public Services, and Select Speeches of 
Rutherford B. Hayes," by James Quay Howard (Cincinnati, 
1876). Campaign lives were also written 
by William D. Howells (New York, 1876) 
and Russell H. Conwell (Boston, 1876). 

His wife, Lucy Ware Webb, born in 
Chillicothe, Ohio, 28 Aug., 1831 ; died 
in Fremont, Ohio, 25 June, 1889. She 
was the daughter of a physician, and 
married in 1852. Of eight children, 
four sons and one daughter are living. 
Mrs. Hayes was noted for her devotion 
to the wounded soldiers during the war. 
She refused to permit wine to be served 
on the White House table, and for this 

innovation incurred much censure in some political circles, but 
received high praise from the advocates of total abstinence, 
who, on the expiration of her husband's term of office, pre- 
sented her with various testimonials, including an album filled 
with autographic expressions of approval from many promi- 
nent persons, and an association of prominent ladies presented 
her portrait, to be added to the collection at the White House. 
Her high character, her frankness and sincerity, as well as the 
rare charm of her being, won her in an uncommon degree the 
affection and esteem of all who came into contact with her. 




Q^^osy ^ <ru<^^A^ 



JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. 

James Abram Garfield, twentieth president of tlie United 
States, born in Orange, Cuyahoga co., Ohio, 19 Nov., 1831 ; 
died in Elberon, N. J., 19 Sept., 1881. His father, Abram 
Garfield, was a native of New York, but of Massachusetts an- 
cestry, descended from Edward Garfield, an English Puritan, 
who in 1630 was one of the founders of Watertown. His 
mother, Eliza Ballou, was born in New Hampshire, of a Hugue- 
not family that fled from France to New England after the 
revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685. Garfield, there- 
fore, was from lineage well represented in the struggles for 
civil and religious liberty, both in the Old and in the New 
World. Abram Garfield, his father, moved to Ohio in 1830, 
and settled in what was then known as "The Wilderness," now 
as the "Western Reserve," which was occupied by Connecticut 
people. Abram Garfield made a prosperous beginning in his 
new home, but died, after a sudden illness, at the age of thirty- 
three, leaving a widow with four small children, of whom James 
was the youngest. In bringing up her family, unaided in a 
lonely cabin (see accompanying illustration), and impressing 
on them a high standard of moral and intellectual worth, Mrs. 
Garfield displayed an almost heroic courage. It was a life of 
struggle and privation ; but the poverty of her home differed 
from that of cities or settled communities — it was the poverty 
of the frontier, all shared it, and all were bound closely to- 
gether in a common struggle, where there were no humiliating 
contrasts in neighboring wealth. At three years of age James 
A. Garfield went to school in a log hut, learned to read, and 
began that habit of omnivorous reading which ended only with 
his life. At ten years of age he was accustomed to manual 
labor, helping out his mother's meagre income by work at 
home or on the farms of the neighbors. Labor was play to the 





B Apjleton & Co 



JAMES ABU AM GARFIELD. 



427 




healthy boy ; he did it cheerfully, almost with enthusiasm, for 
his mother was a staunch Campbellite, whose hymns and songs 
sent her children to their tasks with a feeling that the work 
was consecrated ; but work in winter always yielded its claims 
to those of the dis- 
trict school, where 
he made good prog- 
ress, and was con- 
spicuous for his 
assiduity. By the 
time he was four- 
teen, young Gar- 
field had a fair 
knowledge of arith- 
metic and gram- 
mar, and was particularly apt in the facts of American his- 
tory, which he had eagerly gathered from the meagre trea- 
tises that circulated in that remote section. Indeed, he read 
and re-read every book the scanty libraries of that part of the 
wilderness supplied, and many he learned by heart. Mr. Blaine 
attributes the dignity and earnestness of his style to his fa- 
miliarity with the Bible and its literature, of which he was a 
constant student. His imagination was especially kindled by 
the tales of the sea; a love for adventure took strong posses- 
sion of him. He so far yielded to it that in 1848 he went to 
Cleveland and proposed to ship as a sailor on board a lake 
schooner. But a glance showed him that the life was not the 
romance he had conceived. He turned promptly from the 
shore, but, loath to return home without adventure and with- 
out money, drove some months for a boat on the Ohio canal. 
Little is known of this experience, except that he secured pro- 
motion from the tow-path to the boat, and a story that he was 
strong enough and brave enough to hold his own against his 
companions, who were naturally a rough set. During the 
winter of i849-'5o he attended the Geauga seminary at Chester, 
Ohio, about ten miles from his home. In the vacations he 
learned and practised the trade of a carpenter, helped at har- 
vest, taught, did anything and everything to get money to pay 
for his schooling. After the first term, he asked and needed 
no aid from home; he had reached the point where he could 
support himself. At Chester he met Miss Lucretia Rudolph, 



428 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

his future wife. Attracted at first by tier interest in the same 
intellectual pursuits, he quickly discovered sympathy in other 
tastes, and a congeniality of disposition, which paved the wav 
for the one great love of his life. He was himself attractive 
at this time, exhibited many signs of intellectual superiority, 
and was physically a splendid specimen of vigorous young 
manhood. He studied hard, worked hard, cheerfully ready for 
any emergency, even that of the prize-ring; for, finding it a 
necessity, he one day thrashed the bully of the school in a 
stand-up fight. His nature, always religious, was at this period 
profoundly stirred in that direction. He was converted under 
the instructions of a Campbellite preacher, was baptized and 
received into that denomination. They called themselves 
"The Disciples," contemned all doctrines and forms, and 
sought to direct their lives by the Scriptures, simply inter- 
preted as any plain man would read them. This sanction to 
independent thinking, given by religion itself, must have had 
great influence in creating that broad and catholic spirit in this 
young disciple which kept his earnest nature out of the ruts of 
moral and intellectual bigotry. From this moment his zeal to 
get the best education grew warmer; he began to take wider 
views, to look beyond the present into the future. As soon as 
he finished his studies in Chester he entered (1851) the Hiram 
eclectic institute (now Hiram college), at Hiram, Portage co^, 
Ohio, the principal educational institution of his sect. He was 
not very quick of acquisition, but his perseverance was in- 
domitable, and he soon had an excellent knowledge of Latin 
and a fair acquaintance with algebra, natural philosophy,- and 
botany. He read Xenophon, Caesar, and Virgil with apprecia- 
tion ; but his superiority was more easily recognized in the 
prayer-meetings and debating societies of the college, where he 
was assiduous and conspicuous. Living here was inexpensive, 
and he readily made his expenses by teaching in the English 
departments, and also gave instruction in the ancient languages. 
After three years he was well prepared to enter the junior 
class of any eastern college, and had saved $350 out of his 
salary toward the expenses of such an undertaking. He hesi- 
tated between Yale, Brown, and Williams colleges, finally 
choosing Williams on the kindly promise of encouragement 
sent him by its president, Mark Hopkins. It was natural to 
expect he would choose Bethany college, in West Virginia, an 



JAMES A BR AM GARFIELD. 429 

institution largely controlled and patronized by the " Disciples 
of Christ." Garfield himself seems to have thought some ex- 
planation necessary for his neglect to do so, and with particu- 
larity assigns as reasons that the course of instruction at 
Bethany was not so extended as in the old New England col- 
leges ; that Bethany was too friendly in opinion to slavery ; 
and — most significant of all the reasons he gave — that, as he 
had inherited by birth and association a strong bias toward the 
religious views there inculcated, he ought especially to ex- 
amine other faiths. Entering Williams in the autumn of 1854, 
he was duly graduated with the highest honors in the class of 
1856. His classmates unite with President Hopkins in testify- 
ing that in college he was warm-hearted, large-minded, and 
possessed of great earnestness of purpose and a singular poise 
of judgment. All speak, too, of his modest and unassuming 
manners. But, outside of these and other like qualities, such 
as industry, perseverance, courage, and conscientiousness, Gar- 
field had exhibited up to this time no signs of the superiority 
that was to make him a conspicuous figure. But the effects of 
twenty-five years of most varied discipline, cheerfully accepted 
and faithfully used, begin now to show themselves, and to give 
to history one of its most striking examples of what education 
— the education of books and of circumstances — can accom- 
plish. Garfield was not born, but made; and he made himself 
by persistent, strenuous, conscientious study and work. In the 
next six years he was a college president, a state senator, a 
major-general in the National army, and a representative-elect 
to the National congress. American annals reveal no other 
promotion so rapid and so varied. 

On his return to Ohio, in 1856, he resumed his place as a 
teacher of Latin and Greek at Hiram institute, and the next 
year (1857), being then only twenty-six years of age, he was 
made its president. He was a successful officer, and ambitious, 
as usual, beyond his allotted task. He discussed before his 
interested classes almost every subject of current interest in 
scholarship, science, religion, and art. The story spread, and 
his influence with it; he became an intellectual and moral 
force in the Western Reserve. It was greatest, however, over 
the young. They keenly felt the contagion of his manliness, 
his sympathy, his thirst for knowledge, and his veneration for 
the truth when it was found. As an educator, he was, and 



430 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



always would have been, eminently successful ; he had the 
knowledge, the art to impart it, and the personal magnetism 
that impressed his love for it upon his pupils. His intellectual 
activity at this time was intense. The canons of his church 
permitted him to preach, and he used the permission. He also 
pursued the study of law, entering his name, in 1858, as a 
student in a law-office in Cleveland, but studying in Hiram. 
To one ignorant of the slow development that was character- 
istic of Garfield in all directions, it would seem incredible that 
he now for the first time began to show any noticeable interest 
in politics. He seems never to have even voted before the 
autumn of 1856. No one who knew the man could doubt that 
he would then cast it, as he did, for John C. Fremont, the first 
Republican candidate for the presidency. As moral questions 
entered more and more into politics, Garfield's interest grew 
apace, and he sought frequent occasions to discuss these ques- 
tions in debate. In advocating the cause of freedom against 
slavery, he showed for the first time a skill in discussion, which 
afterward bore good fruit in the house of representatives. 
Without solicitation or thought on his part, in 1859 he was 
sent to represent the counties of Summit and Portage in the 
senate of Ohio. Again in this new field his versatility and in- 
dustry are conspicuous. He made exhaustive investigations 
and reports on such widely different topics as geology, educa- 
tion, finance, and parliamentary law. Always looking to the 
future, and apprehensive that the impending contest might 
leave the halls of legislation and seek the arbitrament of war, 
he gave especial study to the militia system of the state, and 
the best methods of equipping and disciplining it. 

The war came, and Garfield, who had been farmer, car- 
penter, student, teacher, lawyer, preacher, and legislator, was 
to show himself an excellent soldier. In August, 1861, Gov. 
William Dennison commissioned him lieutenant-colonel in the 
42d regiment of Ohio volunteers. The men were his old pupils 
at Hiram college, whom he had persuaded to enlist. Promoted 
to the command of this regiment, he drilled it into military 
efficiency while waiting orders to the front, and in December, 
1861, reported to Gen. Buell, in Louisville, Ky. Gen. Buell 
was so impressed by the soldierly condition of the regiment 
that he gave Col. Garfield a brigade, and assigned him the dif- 
ficult task of driving the Confederate general Humphrey Mar- 



JAMES A BR AM GARFIELD. 4-3 1 

shall from eastern Kentucky. His confidence was such that 
he allowed the young soldier to lay his own plans, though on 
their success hung the fate of Kentucky. The undertaking 
itself was difficult. Gen. Marshall had 5,000 men, while Gar- 
field had but half that number, and must march through a state 
where the majority of the people were hostile, to attack an 
enemy strongly intrenched in a mountainous country. Gar- 
field, nothing daunted, concentrated his little force, and moved 
it with such rapidity, sometimes here and sometimes there, that 
Gen. Marshall, deceived by these feints, and still more by false 
reports, which were skilfully prepared for him. abandoned his 
position and many supplies at Paintville, and was caught in 
retreat by Garfield, who charged the full force of the enemy, 
and maintained a hand-to-hand fight with it for five hours. 
The enemy had 5,000 men and twelve cannon ; Garfield had no 
artillery, and but 1,100 men. But he held his own until re- 
enforced by Gens. Granger and Sheldon, when Marshall gave 
way, leaving Garfield the victor at Middle Creek, 10 Jan., 
1862, one of the most important of the minor battles of the 
war. Shortly afterward Zollicoffer was defeated and slain by 
Gen. Thomas at Mill Spring, and the Confederates lost the 
state of Kentucky. Coming after the reverses at Big Bethel, 
Bull Run, and the disastrous failures in Missouri, Gen. Gar- 
field's triumph over the Confederate forces at Middle Creek 
had an encouraging effect on the entire north. Marshall was a 
graduate of West Point, and had every advantage in numbers 
and position, yet seems to have been out-generaled at every 
point. He was driven from two fortified positions, and finally 
completely routed — all within a period of less than a fortnight 
in the month of January, 1862. In recognition of these serv- 
ices, especially acknowledged by Gen. Buell in his General 
Order No. 40 (20 Jan., 1862), President Lincoln promptly made 
the young colonel a brigadier-general, dating his commission 
from the battle of Middle Creek. 

During his campaign of the Big Sandy, while Garfield was 
engaged in breaking up some scattered Confederate encamp- 
ments, his supplies gave out, and he was threatened with star- 
vation. Going himself to the Ohio river, he seized a steamer, 
loaded it with provisions, and, on the refusal of any pilot to 
undertake the perilous voyage, because of a freshet that had 
swelled the river, he stood at the helm for forty-eight hours 



432 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



and piloted the craft through the dangerous channel. In order 
to surprise Marshall, then intrenched in Cumberland Gap, Gar- 
field marched his soldiers loo miles in four days through a 
blinding snow-storm. Returning to Louisville, he found that 
Gen. Buell was away, overtook him at Columbia, Tenn., and 
was assigned to the command of the 20th brigade. He reached 
Shiloh in time to take part in the second day's fight, was en- 
gaged in all the operations in front of Corinth, and in June, 
1862, rebuilt the bridges on the Memphis and Charleston rail- 
road, and exhibited noticeable engineering skill in repairing 
the fortifications of Huntsville. The unhealthfulness of the re- 
gion told upon him, and on 30 July, 1862, under leave of absence, 
he returned to Hiram, where he lay ill for two months. On 25 
Sept., 1862, he went to Washington, and was ordered on court- 
martial duty, and gained such reputation in this practice that, on 
25 Nov., he was assigned to the case of Gen. Fitz-John Porter. 
In February, 1863, he returned to duty under Gen. Rosecrans, 
then in command of the Army of the Cumberland. Rosecrans 
made him his chief-of-staff, with responsibilities beyond those 
usually given to this office. In this field, Garfield's influence 
on the campaign in Middle Tennessee was most important. 
One familiar incident shows and justifies the great influence he 
wielded in its counsels. Before the battle of Chickamauga (24 
June, 1863) Gen. Rosecrans asked the written opinion of seven- 
teen of his generals on the advisability of an immediate ad- 
vance. All others opposed it, but Garfield advised it, and his 
arguments were so convincing, though pressed without passion 
or prejudice, that Rosecrans determined to seek an engage- 
ment. Gen. Garfield wrote out all the orders of that fateful 
day (19 Sept.), excepting one — and that one was the blunder 
that lost the day. Garfield volunteered to take the news of 
the defeat on the right to Gen. George H. Thomas, who held 
the left of the line. It was a bold ride, under constant fire, 
hut he reached Thomas and gave the information that saved 
the Army of the Cumberland. For this action he was made a 
major-general, 19 Sept., 1863, promoted for gallantry on a field 
that was lost. With a military future so bright before him, 
Garfield, always unselfish, yielded his own ambition to Mr. 
Lincoln's urgent request, and on 3 Dec, 1863, resigned his 
commission, and hastened to Washington to sit in congress, to 
which he had been chosen fifteen months before, as the sue- 



JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. 43^ 

cesser of Joshua R. Giddings. In the mean time Thomas had 
received command of the Army of the Cumberland, had reor- 
ganized It, and had asked Garfield to take command of a divis- 
ion. His inclination was to accept and continue the military 
career, which had superior attractions; but he yielded to the 
representations of the President and Secretary Stanton, that he 
would be more useful in the house of representatives. 

Gen. Garfield was thirty-two years old when he entered 
congress. He found in the house, which was to be the theatre 
of his lasting fame, many with whom his name was for the 
next twenty years intimately associated. Schuyler Colfax was 
its speaker, and Conkling, Blaine, Washburne, Stevens, Fenton, 
Schenck, Henry Winter Davis, William B. Allison, and William 
R. Morrison were among its members. His military reputation 
had preceded him, and secured for him a place in the committee 
on military affairs, then the most important in congress. His 
first speech (14 Jan., 1864), upon a motion to print extra copies 
of Gen. Rosecrans's official report, was listened to with atten- 
tion ; and, indeed, whenever he spoke upon army matters 
this was the case. But the attention was given to the man for 
the information he possessed and imparted rather than to the 
orator ; for in effective speech, as in every other matter in 
which Garfield succeeded, he came to excellence only by labor 
and practice. He was soon regarded as an authority on mili- 
tary matters, and his opinion was sought as an expert, experi- 
enced and careful. To these questions he gave all necessary 
attention, but they did not exhaust his capacity. He began at 
this time, and ever afterward continued, a thorough study of 
constitutional and financial problems, and to aid him in these 
researches he labored to increase his familiarity with the 
German and French languages. In this, his first session, he 
had to stand almost alone in opposition to the bill that in- 
creased the bounty paid for enlistment. He advocated liberal 
bounties to the veterans that re-enlisted, but would use the 
draft to secure raw recruits. History vindicated his judgment. 
In the same session he spoke on the subject of seizure and 
confiscation of rebel property, and on free commerce be- 
tween the states. On 13 Jan., 1865, he discussed exhaustively 
the constitutional amendment to abolish slavery. 

In the 39th congress (1865) he was changed, at his own 
request, from the committee on military affairs to the ways 



434 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



and means committee, which then included Messrs. Morrison, 
of Illinois, Brooks and Conkling, of New York, and Allison, of 
Iowa. His reason for choosing this new field was that, the 
war being ended, financial questions would have supreme im- 
portance, and he wished to have his part in their solution. In 
the 40th congress (1867) he was restored to his old committee 
on military affairs, and made its chairman. In March, 1866, 
he made his first speech on the question of the public debt, 
foreshadowing, in the course of his remarks, that republican 
policy which resulted in the resumption of specie payment, i 
Jan., 1879. From this moment until the treasury note was 
worth its face in gold, he never failed, on every proper occa- 
sion, in the house and out, to discuss every phase of the finan- 
cial question, and to urge upon the National conscience the 
demands of financial honor. In May, 1868, he spoke again 
on the currency, dealing a staggering blow to the adherents 
of George H. Pendleton, who, under the stress of a money 
panic, were clamoring for the government to " make the 
money-market easier." It may be said that he was at this, as 
at later times, the representative and champion of the sound- 
money men in congress, and first and last did more than any 
one else, probably, in settling the issues of this momentous 
question. In 1877 and 1878 he was again active in stemming 
a fresh tide of financial fallacies. He treated the matter this 
time with elementary simplicity, and gave in detail reasons for 
a hard-money policy, based not so much upon opinion and 
theory as upon the teachings of history. 

In the 41st congress a new committee — that on banking 
and currency — was created, and Garfield was very properly 
made its chairman. This gave him new opportunities to serve 
the cause in which he was heartily enlisted, and no one now 
seeks to diminish the value of that service. The most noticed 
and most widely read of these discussions was a speech on the 
National finances, which he delivered in 1878, at Faneuil hall, 
Boston. It was circulated as a campaign document by thou- 
sands, and served to win a victory in Massachusetts and to 
subdue for a while the frantic appeals from the west for more 
paper money. He served also on the select committee on the 
census (a tribute to his skill in statistics) and on the commit- 
tee on rules, as an appreciation of his practical and thorough 
knowledge of parliamentary law. In the 42d and 43d con- 



JAMES ABU AM GARFIELD. 



435 




grasses he was chairman of the committee on appropriations. 
In the 44th, 45th, and 46th congresses (the house bemg Dem- 
ocratic) he was assigned a place on 
the committee of ways and means. 
In reconstruction times, Garfield 
was earnest and aggressive in op- 
position to the theories advocated 
by President Johnson. He was a 
kind man, and not lacking in sym- 
pathy for those who, from mistaken 
motives, had attempted to sever 
their connection with the Federal 
Union ; but he was not a sentimen- 
talist, and had too earnest convic- 
tions not to insist that the results 
won by so much treasure and" blood 
should be secured to the victors. 
An old soldier, he would not see 
Union victories neutralized by eva- 
sions of the constitution. On these 

topics no one was his superior in either branch of congress, 
and no opponent, however able, encountered him here without 
regretting the contest. 

In 1876, Gen. Garfield went to New Orleans, at President 
Grant's request, in company with Senators Sherman and 
Matthews and other Republicans, to watch the counting of 
the Louisiana vote. He made a special study of the West 
Feliciana parish case, and embodied his views in a brief but 
significant report. On his return, he made, in January, 1877, 
two notable speeches in the house on the duty of congress in 
a presidential election, and claimed that the vice-president 
had a constitutional right to count the electoral vote. He 
was opposed to an electoral commission ; yet, when the com- 
mission was ordered, Gen. Garfield was chosen by acclama- 
tion to fill one of the two seats allotted to Republican rep- 
resentatives. His colleague was George F. Hoar, of Mas- 
sachusetts. Garfield discussed before the commission the 
Florida and Louisiana returns, on 9 and 16 Feb., 1877. Mr. 
Blaine left the house in 1877 for the senate, and this made 
Garfield the undisputed leader of the Republican party in the 
house. He was at this time its candidate for speaker. 
29 



436 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

The struggle begun in the second session of the 45th con- 
gress (1879), when the Democratic majority sought to control 
the president through the appropriations, gave Garfield a fine op- 
portunity to display his powers as a leader in opposition. The 
Democratic members added to two general appropriation bills, 
in the shape of amendments, legislation intended to restrain 
the use of the army as a posse to keep the peace at elections, 
to repeal the law authorizing the employment of deputy U. S. 
marshals at the elections of members of congress, and to re- 
lieve jurors in the U. S. courts from the obligation of the test 
oath. The senate, which was Republican, refused to concur 
in these amendments, and so the session ended. An extra 
session was promptly called, which continued into midsummer^ 
Contemporary criticism claims that, in this contest. Gen. Gar- 
field reached, perhaps, the climax of his congressional career. 
A conservative man by nature, he revolted at such high- 
handed measures, and in his speech of 29 March, 1879, char- 
acterized them as a " revolution in congress." Against this 
insult to the spirit of the law he protested with unwonted 
vigor. Like Webster in 1832, he stood the defender of the 
constitution, and his splendid eloquence and resistless logic 
upheld the prerogatives of the executive, and denounced these 
attempts by the legislature to prevent or control elections, 
however disguised, as an attack upon the constitution. He 
warned the house that its course would end in nullification, 
and protested that its principle was the "revived doctrine of 
state sovereignty." (See speeches of 26 April, 10 and 11 
June, and 19 and 27 June, 1879.) The result of it was that 
the Democrats finally voted $44,600,000 of the $45,000,000 of 
appropriations originally asked — a great party victory, to 
which Gen. Garfield largely contributed. His arguments had 
the more weight because not partisan, but supported by a clear 
analysis and statement of the relations between the different 
branches of the government. His last speech to the house 
was made on the appointment of special deputy marshals, 23 
April, 1880. At the same time he made a report of the tariff 
commission, which showed that he was still a sincere friend to 
protection. He was already United States senator-elect from 
the state of Ohio, chosen after a nomination of singular 
unanimity, 13 Jan., 1880. 

Where there is government by party, no leader can escape 



JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. ^yj 

calumny ; hence it assailed Garfield with great venom. In the 
presidential canvass of 1872, he, with other Republican repre- 
sentatives, was charged with having bought stock in the Credit 
Mobilier, sold to them at less than its value to influence their 
action in legislation affecting the Union Pacific railroad. A 
congressional investigation, reporting 13 Feb., 1875, seemed 
to establish these facts so far as Garfield was concerned. He 
knew nothing of any connection between the two companies, 
much less that the Credit Mobilier controlled the railway. 
Garfield denied that he ever owned the stock, and was vaguely 
contradicted by Oakes Ames, who had no evidence of his 
alleged sale of $1,000 worth of the stock to Garfield, except 
a memorandum in his diary, which did not agree with Ames's 
oral testimony that he paid Garfield $329 as dividend on the 
stock. Garfield admitted that he had received $300 in June, 
1868, from Ames, but claimed that it was a loan, and that he 
paid it in the winter of 1869. It was nowhere claimed that 
Garfield ever received certificate, or receipt, or other dividends, 
to which, if the owner of the stock, he was entitled, or that he 
ever asked for them. The innocence of Gen. Garfield was 
generally recognized, and, after the circumstances became 
known, he was not weakened in his district. 

Another investigation in the same congress (43d) gave 
calumny a second opportunity. This was the investigation 
into the conduct of the government of the District of Colum- 
bia. It revealed startling frauds in a De Golyer contract, 
and Garfield's name was found to be in some way connected 
with it. The facts, corroborated in an open letter by James 
M. Wilson, chairman of the committee, were: In May, 1872, 
Richard C. Parsons, a Cleveland attorney, then marshal of 
the supreme court in Washington, having the interests of the 
patents owned by De Golyer in charge, was called away. He 
brought all his material to Garfield, and asked him to prepare 
the brief. The brief was to show the superiority of the pave- 
ment (the subject of patent) over forty other kinds, and did 
not otherwise concern the contract or have anything to do 
with its terms. The fraud, as is generally understood, was in 
the contract, not in the quality of the pavement. Garfield 
prepared the brief and delivered it to Parsons, but did not 
himself make the argument. Parsons sent Garfield subse- 
quently $5,000, which was a part of the fee Parsons had re- 



438 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



ceived for his own services. As thoughtful people reviewed 
the case, there was no harsher criticism than that suggested 
by Gen. Garfield's own lofty standard of avoiding even the 
appearance of evil — that he had not shown his usual pru- 
dence in avoiding any connection, even the most honest, in 
any way, with any matter that could in any shape come up 
for congressional review. It was the unjust charges made in 
connection with these calumnies which sent the iron into his 
soul, and made wounds which he forgave but never forgot. 

In June, 1880, the Republican convention to nominate 
a successor to President Hayes was held in Chicago, and to 
it came Garfield, naturally, at the head of the Ohio delegation. 
He sympathized heartily with the wish of that delegation to 
secure the nomination for John Sherman, and labored loyally 
for that end. There could be no criticism of his action, nor 
could there be any just criticism of his loyalty to his candidate, 
except (and that he never concealed) that he wished more to 
defeat the nomination of Grant than to secure that of Senator 
Sherman. He believed a third term such a calamity that 
patriotism required the sacrifice of all other considerations to 
prevent it. That view he shared with Mr. Blaine, also a candi- 
date in this convention, whose instructions to his friends were, 
** Defeat a third term first, and then struggle for the prize of 
office afterwards. Success in the one case is vital ; success in 
the other is of minor importance." On the thirty-third ballot 
Grant had 306 votes, the remaining 400 being divided between 
Blaine, Edmunds, and Washburne. The hope of the Grant 
men or the Blaine men to secure the prize faltered, and in the 
thirty-fourth ballot Wisconsin broke the monotony by an- 
nouncing thirty-six votes for James A. Garfield. This put the 
spark to fuel that had been unconsciously prepared for it by 
the events of the long struggle. In all the proceedings, pecul- 
iar fitness had put Garfield to the front as the counsellor and 
leader of the anti-Grant majority, and the exhibition of his 
splendid qualifications won increasing admiration and trust. 
His tact and readiness in casual debate, and the beauty and 
force of the more elaborate eft'ort in which he nominated Sher- 
man, won the wavering convention. On the thirty-sixth ballot 
the delegates broke their ranks and rushed to him. He re- 
ceived 399 votes, and then his nomination (8 June, 1880) was 
made unanimous. Gen. Garfield left the convention before the 



JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. ^^Q 

result was announced, and accepted the nomination by letter. 
This was a thoughtful document, and acceptable to the Repub- 
lican voters. Disregardmg precedent, he spoke in his own be- 
half in Ohio, New York, and other states. He spoke sensibly 
and with great discretion, and his public appearance is thought 
to have increased his popularity. He was elected (2 Nov., 
1880) over his competitor, Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, by the 
votes of every northern state except New Jersey, Nevada, and 
California. His inaugural address, 4 March, i88r, was satis- 
factory to the people generally, and his administration began 
with only one cloud in the sky. His cabinet was made up as 
follows: James G. Blaine, of Maine, secretary of state; William 
Windom, of Minnesota, secretary of the treasury ; Wayne Mac- 
Veagh, of Pennsylvania, attorney-general ; Thomas L. James, 
of New York, postmaster-general ; Samuel J. Kirkwood, of 
Iowa, secretary of the interior; Robert T. Lincoln, of Illinois, 
secretary of war; William H. Hunt, of Louisiana, secretary of 
the navy. There was bitter dissension in the party in New 
York, and Garfield gave much consideration to his duty in the 
premises. He was willing to do anything except yield the in- 
dependence of the executive in his own constitutional sphere. 
He would give to the New York senators, Conkling and Piatt, 
more than their share of offices; but they should not be al- 
lowed to interfere with or control the presidential right of 
nomination. He made nominations to the senate — as many, it 
is said, as twelve — in that interest, and then (23 March, 1881) 
sent in the name of William H. Robertson, a leader in the 
other faction, as collector of the port of New York. Senator 
Conkling protested, and then openly resisted his confirmation. 
Yielding to him in the interest of senatorial courtesy, his Re- 
publican colleagues, \\\ caucus, 2 May, 1881, agreed to let con- 
tested nominations lie over practically until the following De- 
cember. This was a substantial victory for Mr. Conkling; but 
it was promptly met by the president, who, a few days after- 
ward (5 May), withdrew all the nominations that were pleasing 
to the New York senator. This brought the other senators to 
terms. Mr. Conkling, recognizing defeat, and Mr. Piatt with 
him, resigned their offices, 16 May, 1881. On 18 May, Col- 
lector Robertson was confirmed. The early summer came, 
and peace and happiness and the growing strength and popu- 
larity of his administration cheered the heart of its chief. At 



440 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



a moment of special exaltation, on the morning of 2 July, 1881, 
he was shot by a disappointed office-seeker. The avowed ob- 
ject was to promote to the presidential chair Vice-President 
Arthur, who represented the Grant or "stalwart" wing of the 
party. The president was setting out on a trip to New Eng- 
land, anticipating especial pleasure in witnessing the com- 
mencement exercises of his alma mater at Williamstown. He 
was passing through the waiting room of the Baltimore and 
Potomac depot, at nine o'clock that morning, leaning on the 
arm of Mr. Blaine, when the assassin fired at him with a pistol. 
The first ball passed through his coat-sleeve ; the second en- 
tered by the back, fractured a rib, and lodged deep in the 
body. The president was carried to the White House, where, 
under the highest medical skill, and with every comfort that 
money and devotion could bring, he lingered for more than 
ten weeks between life and death. The country and the world 
were moved by the dastardly deed; and the fortitude and 
cheerfulness with which the president bore his suffering added 
to the universal grief. Daily bulletins of his condition were 
published in every city in the United States and in all the 
European capitals. Many of the crowned heads of Europe 
sought by telegraphic inquiry more particular news, and re- 
peated their wishes for his recovery. A day of national sup- 
plication was set apart and sacredly observed, and the prayers 
at first seemed answered. His physicians were hopeful, and 
gave expression to their hope. His condition seemed to im- 
prove; but when midsummer came, the patient failed so per- 
ceptibly that a removal was hazarded. On 6 Sept., 1881, he 
was taken to Elberon, N. J., by a special train. He bore the 
journey well, and for a while, under the inspiration of the in- 
vigorating sea-breezes, seemed to rally. But on 15 Sept., 1881, 
symptoms of blood-poisoning appeared. He lingered till the 
19th, when, after a few hours of unconsciousness, he died 
peacefully. A special train (21 Sept.) carried the body to 
Washington, through a country draped with emblems of mourn- 
ing, and through crowds of reverent spectators, to lie in state 
in the rotunda of the capitol two days, 22 and 23 Sept. The 
final services held here were never surpassed in solemnity and 
dignity, except on 27 Feb., 1882, when, in the hall of rep- 
resentatives, at the request of both houses of congress, his 
friend, James G. Blaine, then secretary of state, delivered a 



JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. 



441 



jL^smsm X 



memorial address, in the presence of the president and the 
heads of all the great departments of the government, so per- 
fect that the criticism of two continents was unqualified praise. 
In a long train, crowded with the most illustrious of his coun- 
trymen, which in its passage, day or night, was never out of 
the silent watch of mourning citizens, who stood in city, field, 
and forest, to see it pass, Garfield's 
remains were borne to Cleveland 
and placed (26 Sept., 1882) in a 
beautiful cemetery, which overlooks 
the waters of Lake Erie. The ac- 
companying illustration represents 
the imposing monument that now 
marks his last resting-place. 

His tragic death assures to Gar- 
field the attention of history. It 
will credit him with great services 
rendered in various fields, and with 
a character formed by a singular 
union of the best qualities — indus- 
try, perseverance, truthfulness, hon- 
esty, courage — all acting as faithful 

servants to a lofty and unselfish ambition. Without genius, 
which can rarely do more than produce extraordinary results 
in one direction, his powers were so many and well-trained that 
he produced excellent results in many. If history shall call 
Garfield great, it will be because the development of these 
powers was so complete and harmonious. It has no choice but 
to record that, by the wise use of them, he won distinction in 
many fields: a teacher so gifted that his students compare him 
with Arnold of Rugby; a soldier, rising by merit in rapid pro- 
motion to highest rank; a lawyer heard with profit and'appro- 
priation in the supreme court; an eloquent orator, whose own 
ardent faith kindled his hearers, speaking after thorough prepa- 
ration and with practised skill, but refusing always to win vic- 
tory by forensic trick or device ; a party leader, failing in pre- 
eminence only because his moral honesty would not let him 
always represent a party victory as a necessity of national 
well-being. In all these characters he was the friend of learn- 
ing, and would probably ask no other epitaph than the tribute 
of a friend, who said that, " among the public men of his era. 




442 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

none had higher qualities of statesmanship and greater culture 
than James A. Garfield." 

Garfield's speeches are almost a compendium of the political 
history of the stirring era between 1864 and 1880. Among those 
worthy of special mention, on account of the importance of the 
subjects or the attractive and forcible presentation of them, are 
the following : On the Enrolling and calling out of the National 
Forces (25 Jan., 1864) ; on the Reconstruction of the Southern 
States (February, 1866); on Civil-Service Reform, in the con- 
gress of 1870 and other congresses; on the Currency and the 
Public Faith (April, 1874); on the Democratic Party and the 
South (4 Aug., 1876), of which a million copies were distributed 
as a campaign document ; the speech in opposition to the Wood 
bill, which was framed to break down the protective tariff (4 
June, 1878) ; the speeches on Revolution in Congress (4 March 
and 4 April, 1879); on Congressional Nullification (10 June, 
1879); on Treason at the Polls (11 June, 1879); ^nd on the 
Democratic Party and Public Opmion (11 Oct., 1879). Among 
his speeches in congress, less political in character, were that 
on the National Bureau of Education (8 June, 1866); a series 
on Indian Affairs, covering a period of several years; one on 
the Medical and Surgical History of the Rebellion (2 March, 
1869) ; two on the Census (6 April and 16 Dec, 1879) ; one on 
Civil-Service Reform; many addresses on the silver question; 
and one on National aid to education (6 Feb., 1872). He found 
time to make frequent orations and addresses before societies 
and gatherings outside of congress. His address on College 
Education, delivered before the literary societies of Hiram 
college (14 June, 1867), is an admirable plea for a liberal educa- 
tion, and on a subject in which the author was always deeply in- 
terested. On 30 May, 1868, he delivered an address on the Union 
Soldiers, at the first memorial service held at Arlington, Va. A 
eulogy of Gen. Thomas, delivered before the Army of the 
Cumberland, 25 Nov., 1870, is one of the happiest of his ora- 
torical efforts. On the reception by the house of the statues 
of John Winthrop and Samuel Adams, he spoke with a great 
wealth of historical allusion, and all his memorial addresses, 
especially those on his predecessor in congress, Joshua R. Gid- 
dings, Lincoln, and Profs. Morse and Henry, are worthy of 
study. But in all this series nothing will live longer than the 
simple words with which, from the balcony of the New York 



JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. 



443 



custom-house, he calmed the mob frenzied at the news of 
Lincoln's death : " Fellow-citizens : Clouds and darkness are 
around him; His pavilion is dark waters and thick clouds; 
justice and judgment are the establishment of his throne; 
mercy and truth shall go before his face ! Fellow-citizens .' 
God reigns, and the Government at Washington lives." 

After the death of President Garfield, a popular subscrip- 
tion for his widow and children realized over $360,000. The 
income of this fund is to be paid to Mrs. Garfield during her 
life, after which the principal is to be divided among the chil- 
dren — four sons and a daughter. More than forty of Gar- 
field's speeches in congress have been published in pamphlet- 
form, as has also his oration on the life of Gen. George 
H. Thomas. A volume of brief selections, entitled " Gar- 
field's Words," was compiled by William R. Baich (Boston, 
1881). His works have been edited by Burke A. Hinsdale 
(2 vols., Boston, 1882). The most complete life of President 
Garfield is that by James R. Gilmore (New York, 1880). 

A monument to President Garfield, designed by John Q A. 
Ward, was erected in Washington, D. C., by the Society of the 
army of the Cumberland, and dedicated 
on 12 May, 1887. It consists of a 
bronze statue of Garfield, lo'/^ feet 
high, standing on a circular pedestal 
18 feet in height, with buttresses, on 
which are three reclining figures, rep- 
resenting a student, a warrior, and a 
statesman. The U. S. government 
gave the site and the granite pedestal, 
besides contributing to the cost of the 
statues, and furnishing cannon to be 
used in their casting. (See page 435.) 
The unusual attitude of the arms is 
explained by the fact that Gen. Garfield was left-handed. 




WLUi^, 



His wife, Lucretia Rudolph, born in Hiram, Portage co., 
Ohio, 19 April, 1832, was the daughter of a farmer named 
Mr. Zeb Rudolph. She first met her husband when both were 
students at Hiram, and was married 11 Nov., 1858, in Hudson, 
Ohio, soon after his accession to the presidency of the college. 
Seven children were born to them, of whom five are living. 



CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR. 

Chester Alan Arthur, twenty-first president of the United 
States, born in Fairfield, Franklin co., Vt., 5 Oct., 1830 ; died in 
New York city, 18 Nov., 1886. His father was Rev. William 
Arthur. His mother was Malvina Stone. Her grandfather, 
Uriah Stone, was a New Hampshire pioneer, who about 1763 
migrated from Hampstead to Connecticut river, and made his 
home in Piermont, where he died in 1810, leaving twelve chil- 
dren. Her father was George Washington Stone. She died 
16 Jan., 1869, and her husband died 27 Oct., 1875, at Newton- 
ville, N. Y. Their children were three sons and six daughters, 
all of whom, except one son and one daughter, were living in 
1894. Chester A. Arthur, the eldest son, prepared for college at 
Union Village in Greenwich, and at Schenectady, and in 1845 
he entered the sophomore class of Union. While in his sopho- 
more year he taught school for a term at Schaghticoke, Rens- 
selaer CO., and a second term at the same place during his last 
year in college. He joined the Psi-Upsilon society, and was 
one of six in a class of one hundred who were elected members 
of the Phi Beta Kappa society, the condition of admission be- 
ing high scholarship. He was graduated at eighteen years of 
age, in the class of 1848. While at college he decided to 
become a lawyer, and after graduation attended for several 
months a law school at Ballston Spa, returned to Lansingburg, 
where his father then resided, and continued his legal studies. 
During this period he fitted boys for college, and in 185 1 he 
was principal of an academy at North Pownal, Vt. In 1854, 
James A. Garfield, then a student in Williams college, taught 
penmanship in this academy during his winter vacation. 

In 1853, Arthur, having accumulated a small sum of money, 
decided to go to New York city. He there entered the law 
office of Erastus D. Culver as a student, was admitted to the 




A-n7ilf.in-n H Hr 



CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR. 



445 



bar during the same year, and at once became a member of 
the firm of Culver, Parker & Arthur. Mr. Culver had been an 
anti-slavery member of congress from Washington county 
when Dr. Arthur was pastor of the Baptist church in Green- 
wich in that county. Dr. Arthur had also enjoyed the friend- 
ship of Gerrit Smith, who had often been his guest and spoken 
from his pulpit. Together they had taken part in the meeting 
convened at Utica, 21 Oct., 1835, to form a New York anti- 
slavery society. This meeting was broken up by a committee 
of pro-slavery citizens ; but the members repaired to Mr. 
Smith's home in Peterborough, and there completed the or- 
ganization. On the same day in Boston a women's anti- 
slavery society, while its president was at prayer, was dis- 
persed by a mob, and William Lloyd Garrison was dragged 
through the streets with a rope around his body, threatened 
with tar and feathers, and for his protection lodged in jail by 
the mayor. From these early associations Arthur naturally 
formed sentiments of hostility to slavery, and he first gave 
them public expression in the Lemmon slave case. In 1852 
Jonathan Lemmon, a Virginia slave-holder, determined to 
take eight of the slaves of his wife, Juliet — one man, two 
women, and five children — to Texas, and brought them by 
steamer from Norfolk to New York, intending to re-ship them 
from New York to Texas. On the petition of Louis Napoleon, 
a free colored man, on 6 Nov., a writ of habeas corpus was 
issued by Judge Elijah Paine, of the superior court of New 
York city, and after arguments by Mr. Culver and John Jay 
for the slaves, and H. D. Lapaugh and Henry L. Clinton for 
the slave-holder, Judge Paine, on 13 Nov., released the slaves 
on the ground that they had been made free by being brought 
by their master into a free state. The decision created great 
excitement at the south, and the legislature of Virginia di- 
rected its attorney-general to appeal to the higher courts of 
New York. The legislature of New York passed a resolution 
directing its governor to defend the slaves. In December, 
1857, the supreme court, in which a certiorari had been sued 
out, affirmed Judge Paine's decision (People v. Lemmon, 5 
Sandf., 681), and it was still further sustained by the court of ap- 
peals at the March term, i860 (Lemmon v. People, 20 N. Y. Rep., 
562). Arthur, as a law student, and after his admission to the 
bar, became an earnest advocate for the slaves. He went to 



446 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Albany to secure the intervention in their behalf of the legis- 
lature and the governor, and he acted as their counsel in addi- 
tion to attorney-general Ogden Hoffman, E. D. Culver, Joseph 
Blunt, and (after Mr. Hoffman's death) William M. Evarts. 
Charles O'Conor was employed as further counsel for the 
slave-holder, and argued his side before the court of appeals, 
while Mr. Blunt and Mr. Evarts argued for the slaves. Until 
1855 the street-car companies of New York city excluded 
colored persons from riding with the whites, and made no ade- 
quate provision for their separate transportation. One Sun- 
day in that year a colored woman named Lizzie Jennings, a 
Sabbath-school superintendent, on the way home from her 
school, was ejected from a car on the Fourth avenue line. 
Culver, Parker & Arthur brought a suit in her behalf against 
the company in the supreme court in Brooklyn, the plaintiff 
recovered a judgment, and the right of colored persons to ride 
in any of the city cars was thus secured. The Colored Peo- 
ple's Legal Rights Association for years celebrated the anni- 
versary of their success in this case. 

Mr. Arthur became a Henry Clay whig, and cast his first 
vote in 1852 for Winfield Scott for president. He participated 
in the first republican state convention at Saratoga, and took 
an active part in the Fremont campaign of 1856. On i Jan., 
1861, Gov. Edwin D. Morgan, who on that date entered upon 
his second term, and between whom and Mr. Arthur a warm 
friendship had grown up, appointed him on his staff as en- 
gineer-in-chief, with the rank of brigadier-general. He had 
previously taken part in the organization of the state militia, 
and had been judge-advocate of the second brigade. When 
the civil war began, in April, 1861, his active services were 
required by Gov. Morgan, and he became acting quartermaster- 
general, and as such began in New York city the work of pre- 
paring and forwarding the state's quota of troops. In Decem- 
ber he was called to Albany for consultation concerning the 
defences of New York harbor. On 24 Dec. he summoned a 
board of engineers, of which he became a member ; and on 18 
Jan., 1862, he submitted an elaborate report on the condition 
of the national forts both on the sea-coast and on the inland 
border of the state. On 10 Feb., 1862, he was appointed in- 
spector-general, with the rank of brigadier-general, and in 
May he inspected the New York troops at Fredericksburg and 



CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR. 



447 



on the Chickahominy. In June, 1862, Gov. Morgan ordered 
his return from the Army of the Potomac, and he acted as 
secretary of the meeting of the governors of the loyal states, 
which was held at the Astor House, New York city, 28 June. 
The governors advised President Lincoln to call for more 
troops; and on i July he called for 300,000 volunteers. At 
Gov. Morgan's request. Gen. Arthur resumed his former work, 
resigned as inspector-general, and 10 July was appointed quar- 
termaster-general. In his annual report, dated 27 Jan., 1863, 
he said : " Through the single office and clothing department 
of this department in the city of New York, from i Aug. to i 
Dec, the space of four months, there were completely clothed, 
uniformed, and equipped, supplied with camp and garrison 
equipage, and transported from this state to the seat of war, 
sixty-eight regiments of infantry, two battalions of cavalry, 
and four battalions of artillery." He went out of office 31 
Dec, 1862, when Horatio Seymour succeeded Gov. Morgan, 
and his successor, Quartermaster-General S. V. Talcott, in his 
report of 31 Dec, 1863, spoke of the previous admmistration 
as follows : " I found, on entering on the discharge of my 
duties, a well-organized system of labor and accountability, 
for which the state is chiefly indebted to my predecessor. Gen. 
Chester A. Arthur, who by his practical good sense and unre- 
mitting exertion, at a period when everything was in confusion, 
reduced the operations of the department to a matured plan, 
by which large amounts of money were saved to the govern- 
ment, and great economy of time secured in carrying out the 
details of the same." 

Between 1862 and 1872 Gen. Arthur was engaged in con- 
tinuous and active law practice — in partnership with Henry G. 
Gardner from 1862 till 1867, then for five years alone, and on 
I Jan., 1872, he formed the firm of Arthur, Phelps & Knevals. 
He was for a short time counsel for the department of assess- 
ments and taxes, but resigned the place. During all this 
period he continued to take an active interest in politics ; was 
chairman in 1868 of the central Grant club of New York ; and 
became chairman of the executive committee of the republican 
state committee in 1879. On 20 Nov., 187 1, he was appointed 
by President Grant collector of the port of New York, and 
assumed the office on i Dec. ; was nominated to the senate 6 
Dec, confirmed 12 Dec, and commissioned for four years 16 



448 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Dec. On 17 Dec, 1875, he was nominated for another term, 
and by the senate confirmed the same day, without reference 
to a committee — a courtesy never before extended to an ap- 
pointee who had not been a senator. He was commissioned 
18 Dec, and retained the office until 11 July, 1878, making his 
service about six and two thirds years. 

The New York republican state convention, held at Syra- 
cuse, 22 March, 1876, elected delegates to the national conven- 
tion in favor of the nomination of Senator Conkling for presi- 
dent. The friends of Mr. Conkling in the state convention 
were led by Alonzo B. Cornell, then naval officer in the New 
York custom-house. A minority, calling themselves reform 
republicans, and favoring Benjamin H. Bristow for president, 
were led by George William Curtis. At the national conven- 
tion at Cincinnati, 14 June, sixty-nine of the New York dele- 
gates, headed by Mr. Cornell, voted for Mr. Conkling, and one 
delegate, Mr. Curtis, voted for Mr. Bristow. At the critical 
seventh ballot, however, Mr. Conkling's name was withdrawn, 
and from New York sixty-one votes were given for Rutherford 
B. Hayes, against nine for James G. Blaine ; and the former's 
nomination was thus secured. At the New York republican 
state convention to nominate a governor, held at Saratoga, 23 
Aug., Mr. Cornell and ex-Gov. Morgan were candidates, and 
also William M. Evarts, supported by the reform republicans 
led by Mr. Curtis. Mr. Cornell's name was withdrawn, and 
Gov. Morgan was nominated. In the close state and presi- 
dential canvass that ensued, Messrs. Arthur and Cornell made 
greater exertions to carry New York for the republicans than 
they had ever made in any other campaign ; and subsequently 
Gen. Arthur's activity in connection with the contested count- 
ings in the southern states was of vital importance. Never- 
theless, President Hayes, in making up his cabinet, selected 
Mr. Evarts as his secretary of state, and determined to remove 
Messrs. Arthur and Cornell, and to transfer the power and 
patronage of their offices to the use of a minority faction in 
the republican party. The president had, however, in his in- 
augural of 5 March, 1877, declared in favor of civil service 
reform — " a change in the system of appointment itself ; a 
reform that shall be thorough, radical, and complete; that the 
officer should be secure in his tenure so long as his personal 
character remained untarnished, and the performance of his 



CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR. 



449 



duties satisfactory." In his letter of acceptance of 8 July, 
1876, he had used the same words, and added: " If elected, I 
shall conduct the administration of the government upon these 
principles, and all constitutional powers vested in the executive 
will be employed to establish this reform." It became neces- 
sary, therefore, before removing Arthur and Cornell, that some 
foundation should be laid for a claim that the custom-house 
was not well administered. A series of investigations was 
thereupon instituted. The Jay commission was appointed 14 
April, 1S77, and during the ensuing summer made four reports 
criticising the management of the custom-house. In Septem- 
ber, Sec. Sherman requested the collector to resign, accom- 
panying the request with the offer of a foreign mission. The 
newspapers of the previous day announced that at a cabinet 
meeting it had been determined to remove the collector. The 
latter declined to resign, and the investigations were continued 
by commissions and special agents. To the reports of the Jay 
commission Collector Arthur replied in detail, in a letter to 
Sec. Sherman, dated 23 Nov. On 6 Dec, Theodore Roosevelt 
was nominated to the senate for collector, and L. Bradford 
Prince for naval ofificer ; but they were rejected 12 Dec, and 
no other nominations were made, although the senate remained 
in session for more than six months. On 11 July, 1878, after 
its adjournment, Messrs. Arthur and Cornell were suspended 
from office, and Edwin A. Merritt was designated as collector, 
and Silas W. Burt as naval ofificer, and they took possession of 
the offices. Their nominations were sent to the senate 3 Dec, 
1878. On 15 Jan., 1879, Sec Sherman communicated to the 
senate a full statement of the causes that led to these suspen- 
sions, mainly criticisms of the management of the custom- 
house, closing with the declaration that the restoration of the 
suspended officers would create discord and contention, be un- 
just to the president, and personally embarrassing to the secre- 
tary, and saying that, as Collector Arthur's term of service 
would expire 17 Dec, 1879, his restoration would be. temporary, 
as the president would send in another name, or suspend him 
again after the adjournment of the senate. 

On 21 Jan., 1879, Collector Arthur, in a letter to Senator 
Conkling, chairman of the committee on commerce, before 
which the nominations were pending, made an elaborate reply 
to Sec. Sherman's criticisms, completely demonstrating the 



450 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



honesty and efficiency with which the custom-house had been 
managed, and the good faith with which the policy and in- 
structions of the president had been carried out. A fair sum- 
mary of the merits of the ostensible issue is contained in Col- 
lector Arthur's letter of 23 Nov., 1877, from which the following 
extract is taken : " The essential elements of a correct civil 
service I understand to be: first, permanence in office, which 
of course prevents removals except for cause; second, promo- 
tion from the lower to the higher grades, based upon good 
conduct and efficiency; third, prompt and thorough investiga- 
tion of all complaints, and prompt punishment of all miscon- 
duct In this respect I challenge comparison with any depart-, 
ment of the government under the present, or under any past, 
national administration. I am prepared to demonstrate the 
truth of this statement on any fair investigation." In a table 
appended to this letter Collector Arthur showed that during 
the six years he had managed the office the yearly percentage 
of removals for all causes had been only 2^/^ per cent, as 
against an annual average of 28 per cent, under his three 
immediate predecessors, and an annual average of about 24 
per cent, since 1857, when Collector Schell took office. Out 
of 923 persons who held office when he became collector, on 
I Dec, 1871, there were 531 still in office on i May, 1877, 
having been retained during his entire term. In making 
promotions, the uniform practice was to advance men from 
the lower to the higher grades, and all the appointments 
except two, to the one hundred positions of $2,000 salary, or 
over, were made in this method. The expense of collecting 
the revenue was also kept low; it had been, under his prede- 
cessors, between 1857 and 1861, ^'^j^^ of one per cent, of the 
receipts; between 1861 and 1864,^7/,^; in 1864 and 1865, i '^°\,^\ 
between 1866 and 1869, ''Y,^ ; in 1869 and 1870, ^'^j^^\ in 1870 
and i87i,'°/,oo; and under him, from 1871 to 1877, it was ^/.^o of 
one per cent. The influence of the administration, however, 
was sufficient to secure the confirmation of Mr. Merritt and 
Mr. Burt on 3 Feb., 1879, and the controversy was remitted 
to the republicans of New York for their opinion. Mr. Cor- 
nell was nominated for governor of New York 3 Sept., 1879, 
and elected on 4 Nov. ; and Mr. Arthur was considered a 
candidate for U. S. senator for the term to begin 4 March, 
1881. 



CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR. 



451 



On retiring from the office of collector, Gen. Arthur re- 
sumed law practice with the firm of Arthur, Phelps, Knevals & 
Ransom. But he continued to be active in politics, and, in 
1880, advocated the nomination of Gen. Grant to succeed 
President Hayes. He was a delegate at large to the Chicago 
convention, which met 2 June, and during the heated prelimi- 
nary contest before the republican national committee, which 
threatened to result in the organization of two independent 
conventions, he conducted for his own side the conferences 
with the controlling anti-third term delegates relative to the 
choice of a temporary presiding officer, and the arrangement 
of the preliminary roll of delegates in the cases to be con- 
tested in the convention. The result of the conferences was an 
agreement by which all danger was avoided, and when, upon 
the opening of the convention, an attempt was made, in conse- 
quence of a misunderstanding on the part of certain Grant 
delegates, to violate this agreement, he resolutely adhered to 
it, and insisted upon and secured its observance. After the 
nomination, 10 June, of Gen. Garfield for president, by a com- 
bination of the anti-third term delegates, a general desire arose 
in the convention to nominate for vice-president some advo- 
cate of Grant and a resident of New York state. The New 
York delegation at once indicated their preference for Gen. 
Arthur, and before the roll-call began the foregone conclusion 
was evident : he received 468 votes against 283 for all others, 
and the nomination was made unanimous. In his letter of ac- 
ceptance of 5 July, 1880, he emphasized the right and the para- 
mount duty of the nation to protect the colored citizens, who 
were enfranchised as a result of the southern rebellion, in the 
full enjoyment of their civil and political rights, including 
honesty and order, and excluding fraud and force, in popular 
elections. He also approved such reforms in the public service 
as would base original appointments to office upon ascertained 
fitness, fill positions of responsibility by the promotion of 
worthy and efficient officers, and make the tenure of office 
stable, while not allowing the acceptance of public office to 
impair the liberty or diminish the responsibility of the citizen. 
He also advocated a sound currency, popular education, such 
changes in tariff and taxation as would " relieve any overbur- 
dened industry or class, and enable our manufacturers and 
artisans to compete successfully with those of other lands," 
30 



452 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



national works of internal improvement, and the development 
of our water-courses and harbors wherever required by the 
general interests of commerce. Durmg the canvass he re- 
mained chairman of the New York republican state commit- 
tee. The result was a plurality for Garfield and Arthur of 21,- 
000 in the state, against a plurality of 32,000 in 1876 for Tilden 
and Hendricks, the democratic candidates. 

Vice-President Arthur took the oath of otifice 4 March, 1881, 
and presided over the extra session of the senate that then 
began, which continued until 20 May. The senate contained 
37 republicans and 37 democrats, while senators Mahone, of 
Virginia, and Davis, of Illinois, who were rated as independ- 
ents, generally voted, the former with the republicans and the 
latter with the democrats, thus making a tie, and giving the 
vice-president the right to cast the controlling vote, which he 
several times had occasion to exercise. The session was ex- 
citing, and was prolonged by the efforts of the republicans to 
elect their nommees for secretary and sergeant-at-arms, against 
dilatory tactics employed by the democrats, and by the contro- 
versy over President Garfield's nomination, on 23 March, for 
collector of the port of New York, of William H. Robertson, 
who had been the leader of the New York anti-third term dele- 
gates at the Chicago convention. During this controversy the 
vice-president supported Senators Conkling and Piatt in their 
opposition to the confirmation. On 28 March he headed a re- 
monstrance, signed also by the senators and by Postmaster- 
General James, addressed to the president, condemning the 
appointment, and asking that the nomination be withdrawn. 
When the two senators hastily resigned and made their unsuc- 
cessful contest for a reelection by the legislature of New York, 
then in session at Albany, he exerted himself actively in their 
behalf during May and June. 

President Garfield was shot 2 July, 1881, and died 19 Sept. 
His cabinet announced his death to the vice-president, then in 
New York, and, at their suggestion, he took the oath as presi- 
dent on the 20th, at his residence, 123 Lexington avenue, before 
Judge John R. Brady, of the New York supreme court. On 
the 22d the oath was formally administered again in the vice- 
president's room in the capitol at Washington by Chief-Justice 
Waite, and President Arthur delivered the following inaugural 
address : " For the fourth time in the history of the republic its 



CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR. 453 

chief magistrate has been removed by death. All hearts are 
filled with grief and horror at the hideous crime which has dark- 
ened our land; and the memory of the murdered president, his 
protracted sufferings, his unyielding fortitude, the example and 
achievements of his life, and the pathos of his death, will for- 
ever illumine the pages of our history. For the fourth time 
the officer elected by the people and ordained by the constitu- 
tion to fill a vacancy so created is called to assume the execu- 
tive chair. The wisdom of our fathers, foreseeing even the most 
dire possibilities, made sure that the government should never 
be imperilled because of the uncertainty of human life. Men 
may die, but the fabrics of our free institutions remain un- 
shaken. No higher or more assuring proof could exist of the 
strength and permanence of popular government than the fact 
that, though the chosen of the people be struck down, his con- 
stitutional successor is peacefully installed without shock or 
strain, except the sorrow which mourns the bereavement. All 
the noble aspirations of my lamented predecessor which found 
expression in his life, the measures devised and suggested 
during his brief administration to correct abuses and enforce 
economy, to advance prosperity and promote the general wel- 
fare, to insure domestic security and maintain friendly and 
honorable relations with the nations of the earth, will be gar- 
nered in the hearts of the people, and it will be my earnest 
endeavor to profit and to see that the nation shall profit by his 
example and experience. Prosperity blesses our country, our 
fiscal policy is fixed by law, is well grounded and generally ap- 
proved. No threatening issue mars our foreign intercourse, 
and the wisdom, integrity, and thrift of our people may be 
trusted to continue undisturbed the present assured career of 
peace, tranquillity, and welfare. The gloom and anxiety which 
have enshrouded the country must make repose especially wel- 
come now. No demand for speedy legislation has been heard \ 
no adequate occasion is apparent for an unusual session of 
congress. The constitution defines the functions and powers 
of the executive as clearly as those of either of the other two 
departments of the government, and he must answer for the 
just exercise of the discretion it permits and the performance 
of the duties it imposes. Summoned to these high duties and 
responsibilities, and profoundly conscious of their magnitude 
and gravity, I assume the trust imposed by the constitution, 



454 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



relying for aid on Divine guidance and the virtue, patriotism, 
and intelligence of the American people." 

He also on the same day appointed Monday, 26 Sept., as a 
day of mourning for the late president. On 23 Sept. he is- 
sued a proclamation convening the senate in extraordinary 
session, to meet 10 Oct., in order that a president pro tcin. of 
that body might be elected. The members of the cabinet were 
requested to retain their places until the regular meeting of 
congress in December, and did remain until their successors 
were appointed, except Sec. Windom, who, desiring to become 
a candidate for senator from Minnesota, resigned from the 
treasury 24 Oct. Edwin D. Morgan was nominated and con- 
firmed secretary of the treasury, but declined the appointment ; 
and Charles J. Folger, of New York, was then nominated and 
confirmed, was commissioned 27 Oct., and qualified 14 Nov. 
He died in office 4 Sept., 1884. The other members of the 
cabinet of President Arthur, and the dates of their commis- 
sions, were as follows : State department, Frederick T. Fre- 
linghuysen, of New Jersey, 12 Dec, 1881 ; treasury, Walter Q. 
Gresham, of Indiana, 24 Sept., 1884; Hugh McCulloch, of 
Maryland, 28 Oct., 1884; war, Robert T. Lincoln, of Illinois, 
5 March, 1881 (retained from Garfield's cabinet) ; navy, Wil- 
liam E. Chandler, of New Hampshire, 12 April, 1882 ; interior, 
Henry M. Teller, of Colorado, 6 April, 1882 ; attorney-general, 
Eenjamin H. Brewster, of Pennsylvania, 19 Dec, 1881 ; post- 
master-general, Timothy O. Howe, of Wisconsin, 20 Dec, 1881 
(died in office, 25 March, 1883) ; Walter Q. Gresham, 3 April, 
1885 ; Frank Hatton, of Iowa, 14 Oct., 1884. Messrs. Freling- 
huysen, McCulloch, Lincoln, Chandler, Teller, Brewster, and 
Hatton remained in office until the end of the presidential term. 

The prominent events of President Arthur's administration, 
including his most important recommendations to congress, 
may be here summarized : Shortly after his accession to the 
presidency he participated in the dedication of the monument 
erected at Yorktown, Va., to commemorate the surrender of 
Lord Cornwallis at that place, 19 Oct., 1781. Representatives 
of our French allies and of the German participants were pres- 
ent. At the close of the celebration the president felicitously 
directed a salute to be fired in honor of the British flag, " in 
recognition of the friendly relations so long and so happily 
subsisting between Great Britain and the United States, in the 



CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR. 



455 



trust and confidence of peace and good-will between the two 
countries for all the centuries to come, and especially as a 
mark of the profound respect entertained by the American 
people for the illustrious sovereign and gracious lady who sits 
upon the British throne." On 29 Nov., 1881, an invitation was 
extended to all the independent countries of North and South 
America to participate in a peace congress, to be convened at 
Washington 22 Nov., 1882. The president, in a special mes- 
sage, 18 April, 1882, asked the opinion of congress as to the 
expediency of the project. No response being elicted, he con- 
cluded, 9 Aug., 1882, to postpone indefinitely the proposed con- 
vocation, believing that so important a step should not be 
taken without the express authority of congress ; or while 
three of the nations to be invited were at war ; or still, again, 
until a programme should have been prepared explicitly indi- 
cating the objects and limiting the powers of the congress. 
Efforts were made, however, to strengthen the relations of the 
United States with the other American nationalities. Rep- 
resentations were made by the administration with a view to 
bringing to a close the devastating war between Chili and the 
allied states of Peru and Bolivia. Its friendly counsel was 
offered in aid of the settlement of the disputed boundary-line 
between Mexico and Guatemala, and was probably influential 
in averting a war between those countries. 

On 29 July, 1882, a convention was made with Mexico for 
relocating the boundary between that country and the United 
States from the Rio Grande to the Pacific, and on the same 
day an agreement was also effected permitting the afmed 
forces of either country to cross the frontier in pursuit of 
hostile Indians. A series of reciprocal commercial treaties 
with the countries of America to foster an unhampered move- 
ment of trade was recommended. Such a treaty was made 
with Mexico, 20 Jan., 1883, Gen. U. S. Grant and William H. 
Trescott being the U. S. commissioners, and was ratified by 
the senate 11 March, 1884. Similar treaties were made with 
Santo Domingo 4 Dec, 1884 ; and 18 Nov., 1884, with Spain, 
relative to the trade of Cuba and Porto Rico ; both of which, 
before action by the senate, were withdrawn by President 
Cleveland, who, in his message of 8 Dec, 1885, pronounced 
them inexpedient. In connection with commercial treaties 
President Arthur advised the establishment of a monetary 



456 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

union of the American countries to secure the adoption of a 
uniform currency basis, and as a step toward the general re- 
monetization of silver. Provision for increased and improved 
consular representation in the Central American states was 
urged, and the recommendation was accepted and acted upon 
by congress. A Central and South American commission was 
appointed, under the act of congress of 7 July, 1884, and pro- 
ceeded on Its mission, guided by instructions containing a 
statement of the general policy of the government for en- 
larging its commercial intercourse with American states. Re- 
ports from the commission were submitted to congress in a 
message of 13 Feb., 1885. Negotiations were conducted with 
the republic of Colombia for the purpose of renewing and 
strengthening the obligations of the United States as the sole 
guarantor of the integrity of Colombian territory, and of the 
neutrality of any interoceanic canal to be constructed across 
the isthmus of Panama. By correspondence upon this subject, 
carried on with the British government, it was shown that the 
provisions of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty of 19 April, 1850, can 
not be urged, and do not continue in force in justification of 
interference by any European power, with the right of the 
United States to exercise exclusive control over any route of 
isthmus transit, in accordance with the spirit and purpose of 
the so-called " Monroe doctrine." As the best and most prac- 
ticable means of securing a canal, and at the same time pro- 
tecting the paramount interests of the United States, a treaty 
was made with the republic of Nicaragua, i Dec, 1884, which 
authorized the United States to construct a canal, railway, and 
telegraph line across Nicaraguan territory by way of San Juan 
river and Lake Nicaragua. This treaty was rejected by the 
senate, but a motion was made to reconsider the vote. Before 
final action had been taken it was withdrawn, 12 March, 1885, 
by President Cleveland, who withheld it from re-submission to 
the senate, and in his message of 8 Dec, 1885, expressed his 
unwillingness to assert for the United States any claim of 
paramount privilege of ownership or control of any canal 
across the isthmus. Satisfaction was obtained from Spain of 
the old claim on account of the " Masonic," an American ves- 
sel, which had been seized at Manila unjustly, and under cir- 
cumstances of peculiar severity. From the same government 
was also secured a recognition of the conclusiveness of the 



CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR. 



4S7 



judgments of the U. S. courts naturalizing citizens of Spanish 
nativity. From the British government a full recognition of 
the rights and immunities of naturalized American citizens of 
Irish origin was obtained, and all such that were under arrest 
in England or Ireland, as suspects, were liberated. Notice was 
given to England, under the joint resolution of congress of 3 
March, 1883, of the termination of the fishery clauses of the 
treaty of Washington. A complete scheme for re-organizing 
the extra-territorial jurisdiction of American consuls in China 
and Japan, and another for re-organizing the whole consular 
service, were submitted to congress. The former recommenda- 
tion was adopted by the senate. The balance of the Japanese 
indemnity fund was returned to Japan by act of 22 Feb., 1883, 
and the balance of the Chinese fund to China by act of 3 
March, 1885. A bill that was passed by congress prohibiting 
the immigration of Chinese laborers for a term of twenty years 
was vetoed, 4 April, 1882, as being a violation of the treaty of 
1880 with China, which permitted the limitation or suspension 
of immigration, but forbade its absolute prohibition. The 
veto was sustained and a modified bill, suspending immigra- 
tion for ten years, was passed 6 May, 1882, which received 
executive approval, and also an amendatory act of 5 July, 
1884. Outstanding claims with China were settled, and addi- 
tional regulations of the opium traffic established. Friendly 
and commercial intercourse with Corea was opened under the 
most favorable auspices, in pursuance of the treaty negotiated 
on 22 May, 1882, through the agency of Com. R. W. Shufeldt, 
U. S. N. The friendly offices of the United States were ex- 
tended to Liberia in aid of a settlement, favorable to that re- 
public, of the dispute concerning its boundary-line, with the 
British possession of Sierra Leone. The flag of the interna- 
tional association of the Congo was, on 22 April, 1884, recog- 
nized first by the United States. A commercial agent was 
appointed to visit the Congo basin, and the government was 
represented at an international conference at Berlin, called by 
the emperor of Germany, for the promotion of trade and the 
establishment of commercial rights in the Congo region. The 
renewal of the reciprocity treaty with Hawaii was advised. 
Remonstrances were addressed to Russia against any pro- 
scriptive treatment of the Hebrew race in that country. The 
international prime meridian of Greenwich was established as 



458 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



the result of a conference of nations, initiated by the U. S. 
government, and held at Washington, i Oct. to i Nov., 1884. 
In response to the appeal of Cardinal John McCloskey, of 
New York, the Italian government, on 4 March, 1884, was 
urged to exempt from the sale of the property of the propa- 
ganda the American college in Rome, established mainly by 
contributions from the United States, and in consequence of 
this interposition the college was saved from sale and virtual 
confiscation. On 3 Aug., 1882, a law was passed for returning 
convicts to Europe, and on 26 Feb., 1885, importation of con- 
tract-laborers was forbidden. 

The suspension of the coinage of standard silver dollars, 
and the redemption of the trade dollars, were repeatedly 
recommended. The repeal of the stamp taxes on matches, 
proprietary articles, playing-cards, bank checks and drafts, 
and of the tax on surplus bank capital and deposits, was rec- 
ommended. These taxes were repealed by act of congress of 
3 March, 1883; and by executive order of 25 June, 1883, the 
number of internal revenue collection districts was reduced 
from 126 to 83. The tax on tobacco was reduced by the same 
act of congress ; and in his last annual message, of 5 Dec, 
1884, the president advised the repeal of all internal revenue 
taxes except those on distilled spirits and fermented liquors. 
Congress was advised to undertake the revision of the tariff, 
but "without the abandonment of the policy of so discriminat- 
ing in the adjustment of details as to afford aid and protection 
to American labor." The course advised was the organization 
of a tariff commission, which was authorized by act of congress 
of 15 May, 1882. The report of the commission submitted to 
congress 4 Dec. was made the basis of the tariff revision act of 
3 March, 1883. On 12 July, 1882, an act became a law en- 
abling the national banks, which were then completing their 
twenty-year terms, to extend their corporate existence. Over- 
due five per cent, bonds to the amount of $469,651,050, and 
six per cent, bonds to the amount of $203,573,750, were con- 
tinued (except about $56,000,000 which were paid) at the rate 
of 3'/^ per cent, interest. The interest-bearing public debt was 
reduced $478,785,950, and the annual interest charge $29,831,- 
880 during the presidential term. On i July, 1882, "An act to 
regulate the carriage of passengers by sea" was vetoed, be- 
cause not correctly or accurately phrased, although the object 



CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR. 



459 



was admitted to be meritorious and philanthropic. A modified 
bill passed congress, and was approved 2 Aug. The attention 
of congress was frequently called to the decline of the Ameri- 
can merchant marine, and legislation was recommended for its 
restoration, and the construction and maintenance of ocean 
steamships under the U. S. flag. In compliance with these 
recommendations, the following laws were enacted: 26 June, 
1884, an act to remove certain burdens from American ship- 
piiig 5 5 July? 1884, an act creating a bureau of navigation, 
under charge of a commissioner, in the treasury department; 
and 3 March, 1885, an amendment to the postal appropriation 
bill appropriatmg $800,000 for contracting with American 
steamship lines for the transportation of foreign mails. Rea- 
sonable national regulation of the railways of the country was 
favored, and the opinion was expressed that congress should 
protect the people at large in their inter-state traffic against 
acts of injustice that the state governments might be power- 
less to prevent. 

The attention of congress was often called to the necessity 
of modern provisions for coast defence. By special message 
of II April, 1884, an annual appropriation of $1,500,000 for 
the armament of fortifications was recommended. In the last 
annual message an expenditure of $60,000,000, one tenth to be 
appropriated annually, was recommended. In consequence, 
the fortifications board was created by act of 3 March, 1885, 
which made an elaborate report to the 49th congress, recom- 
mending a complete system of coast defence at an ultimate 
cost estimated at $126,377,800. The gun-foundry board, con- 
sisting of army and navy officers, appointed under the act of 
3 March, 1883, visited Europe and made full reports, advising 
large contracts for terms of years with American manufac- 
turer's to produce the steel necessary for heavy cannon, and 
recommending the establishment of one army and one navy 
gun factory for the fabrication of modern ordnance. This 
plan was commended to congress in a special message 26 
March, 1884, and in the above-mentioned message of 11 April; 
also in the annual message of that year. In the annual mes- 
sage of 1881 the improvement of Mississippi river was recom- 
mended. On 17 April, 1882, by special message, congress was 
urged to provide for " closing existing gaps in levees," and to 
adopt a system for the permanent improvement of the naviga- 



460 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

tion of the river and for the security of the valley. Special 
messages on this subject were also sent 8 Jan. and 2 April, 
1884. Appropriations were made of $8,500,000 for permanent 
work; and in 1882 of $350,000, and in 1884 of over $150,000, 
for the relief of the sufferers from floods, the amount in the 
latter year being the balance left from $500,000 appropriated 
on account of the floods in the Ohio. These relief appropri- 
ations were expended under the personal supervision of the 
secretary of war. On i Aug., 1882, the president vetoed a 
river-and-harbor bill making appropriations of $18,743,875, on 
the ground that the amount greatly exceeded " the needs of the 
country " for the then current fiscal year, and because it con- 
tained " appropriations for purposes not for the common defence 
or general welfare," which did not " promote commerce among 
the states, but were, on the contrary, entirely for the benefit of 
the particular localities " where it was " proposed to make the 
improvements." The bill, on 2 Aug., passed congress over the 
veto by 122 yeas to 59 nays in the house, and 41 yeas to 16 
nays in the senate. In connection with this subject it was 
suggested to congress, in the annual messages of 1882, 1883, 
and 1884, that it would be wise to adopt a constitutional 
amendment allowing the president to veto in part only any 
bill appropriating moneys. A special message of 8 Jan., 1884, 
commended to congress, as a matter of great public interest, 
the cession to the United States of the Illinois and Michigan 
canal in order to secure the construction of the Hennepin 
canal to connect Lake Michigan by way of Illinois river with 
the Mississippi. Unlawful intrusions of armed settlers into 
the Indian territory for the purpose of locating upon lands 
set apart for the Indians were prevented, or the intruders were 
expelled by the army. On 2 July, 1884, the president vetoed 
the bill to restore to the army and place on the retired list 
Maj.-Gen. Fitz-John Porter, who, on the sentence of a court- 
martial, approved by President Lincoln 27 Jan., 1863, had been 
dismissed for disobedience of orders to march to attack the 
enemy in his front during the second battle of Bull Run. The 
reasons assigned for the veto were, (i) that the congress had 
no right " to impose upon the president the duty of nominating 
or appointing to office any particular individual of its own 
selection," and (2) that the bill was in eftect an annulment 0/ 
a final judgment of a court of last resort, after the lapse ot 




^^^^~~~^^ ^5 




CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR. 461 

many years, and on insufficient evidence. The veto was over- 
ruled in the house by 168 yeas to 78 nays, but was sustained 
in the senate by 27 to 27. 

A new naval policy was adopted prescribing a reduction in 
the number of officers, the elimination of drunkards, great 
strictness and impartiality in discipline, the discontmuance of 
extensive repairs of old wooden ships, the diminution of navy- 
yard expenses, and the beginning of the construction of a new 
navy of modern steel ships and guns according to the plans of 
a skilful naval advisory board. The first of such vessels, the 
cruisers "Chicago," "Boston," and "Atlanta," and a steel 
despatch-boat, " Dolphin," with their armaments, were de- 
signed in this country and built in American workshops. The 
gun foundry board referred to above was originated, and its 
reports were printed with that of the department for 1884. A 
special message of 26 March, 1884, urged continued progress 
in the reconstruction of the navy, the granting of authority for 
at least three additional steel cruisers and four gun-boats, and 
the finishing of the four double-turreted monitors. Two cruis- 
ers and two gun-boats were authorized by the act of 3 March, 
1885. An Arctic expedition, consisting of the steam whalers 
"Thetis" and " Bear," together with the ship " Alert," given 
by the British admiralty, was fitted out and despatched under 
the command of Commander Winfield Scott Schley for the 
relief of Lieut. A. W. Greely, of the U. S. army, who with his 
party had been engaged since 1881 in scientific exploration at 
Lady Franklin bay, in Grinnell Land; and that officer and the 
few other survivors were rescued at Cape Sabine 22 June, 

1884. On recommendation of the president, an act of congress 
was passed directing the immediate return of the "Alert " to 
the English government. 

The reduction of letter postage from three to two cents a 
half ounce was recommended, and was effected by the act of 
3 March, 1883 ; the unit of weight was on 3 March, 1885, made 
one ounce, instead of a half ounce; the rate on transient news- 
papers and periodicals was reduced, 9 June, 1884, to one cent 
for four ounces, and the rate on similar matter, when sent by 
the publisher or from a news agency to actual subscribers or 
to other news agents, including sample copies, was on 3 March, 

1885, reduced to one cent a pound. The fast-mail and free- 
delivery systems were largely extended ; and also, on 3 March, 



462 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



1883, the money-order system. Special letter deliveries were 
established 3 March, 1885. The star service at the west was 
increased at reduced cost. The foreign mail service was im- 
proved, the appropriation of $800,000, already alluded to, was 
made, and various postal conventions were negotiated 

Recommendations were made for the revision of the laws 
fixing the fees of jurors and witnesses, and for prescribing by 
salaries the compensation of district attorneys and marshals. 
The prosecution of persons charged with frauds in connection 
with the star-route mail service was pressed with vigor (the at- 
torney-general appearing in person at the principal trial), and 
resulted in completely breaking up the vicious and corrupt 
practices that had previously flourished in connection with that 
service. Two vacancies on the bench of the supreme court 
were filled — one on the death of Nathan Clifford, of Maine, 
by Horace Gray, of Massachusetts, commissioned on 20 Dec, 

1881. For the vacancy occasioned by the retirement of Ward 
Hunt, of New York, Roscoe Conkling was nominated 24 Feb., 

1882, and he was confirmed by the senate; but on 3 March he 
declined the office, and Samuel Blatchford, of New York, was 
appointed and commissioned 23 March, 1882. 

Measures were recommended for breaking up tribal rela- 
tions of the Indians by allotting to them land in severalty, and 
by extending to them the laws applicable to other citizens; 
and liberal appropriations for the education of Indian children 
were advised. Peace with all the tribes was preserved during 
the whole term of the administration. Stringent legislation 
against polygamy in Utah was recommended, and under the 
law enacted 22 March, 1882, many polygamists were indicted, 
convicted, and punished. The Utah commission, to aid in the 
better government of the territory, was appointed under the 
same act. The final recommendation of the president in his 
messages of 1883 and 1884 was, that congress should assume 
the entire political control of the territory, and govern it 
through commissioners. Legislation was urged for the preser- 
vation of the valuable forests remaining upon the public do- 
main. National aid to education was also urged, preferably 
through setting apart the proceeds of the sales of public lands. 

A law for the adjudication of the French spoliation claims 
was passed 20 Jan., 1885, and preparation was made for carry- 
ing it into effect. Congress was urged in every annual message 



CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR. 463 

to pass laws establishing safe and certain methods of ascertain- 
ing the result of a presidential election, and fully providing for 
all cases of removal, death, resignation, or inability of the 
president, or any officer acting as such. In view of certain 
decisions of the supreme court, additional legislation was urged 
in the annual message of 1883 to supplement and enforce the 
14th amendment to the constitution in its special purpose to 
insure to members of the colored race the full enjoyment of 
civil and political rights. The subject of reform in the meth- 
ods of the public service, which had been discussed by the 
president in his letter of 23 Nov., 1877, while collector, to Sec. 
Sherman, and in his letter of 15 July, 1880, accepting the nom- 
ination for vice-president, was fully treated in all his annual 
messages, and in special messages of 29 Feb., 1884, and 11 
Feb., 1885. The "act to regulate and improve the civil service 
of the United States" was passed 16 Jan., 1883, and under it a 
series of rules was established by the president, and the law 
and rules at all times received his unqualified support, and 
that of the heads of the several departments. The final distri- 
bution of the moneys derived from the Geneva award among 
meritorious sufferers on account of the rebel cruisers fitted out 
or harbored in British ports was provided for by the act of 5 
June, 1882. In the annual message of 1884 a suitable pension 
to Gen. Grant was recommended, and, upon his announcement 
that he would not accept a pension, a special message of 3 
Feb., 1885, urged the passage of a bill creating the office of 
general of the army on the retired list, to enable the president 
in his discretion to appoint Gen. Grant. Such a bill was passed 
3 March, 1885, and the president on that day made the nomi- 
nation, and it was confirmed in open session amid demonstra- 
tions of approval, in a crowded senate-chamber, a few minutes 
before the expiration of the session. 

The president attended, as the guest of the city of Boston, 
the celebration of the Webster Historical society at Marshfield, 
Mass., and made brief addresses in Faneuil Hall, 11 Oct., 1882, 
and at Marshfield, 13 Oct. He commended the Southern Ex- 
position at Louisville, Ky., by a letter of 9 June, 1883, attended 
its opening, and delivered an address on 2 Aug. He aided 
in many ways the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial 
Exposition at New Orleans; and on 16 Dec, 1884, in an ad- 
dress sent by telegraph from the executive mansion in Wash- 



464 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



ington, he opened the exposition, and set in motion the ma- 
chinery by the electric current. On 25 Sept., 1883, he was 
present at the unveiling of the Burnside monument at Bristol, 
R. I. On 26 Nov., 1883, he attended the unveiling of the 
statue of Washington on the steps of the sub-treasury building 
in New York city; and 21 Feb., 1885, he made an address at 
the dedication, at the national capital, of the Washington mon- 
ument, which had been completed during his term. 

President Arthur's name was presented to the republican 
presidential convention that met at Chicago 3 June, 1884, by 
delegates from New York, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, North 
Carolina, and Louisiana. On the first ballot he received 278 
votes against 540 for all others, 276 on the second, 274 on the 
third, and 207 on the fourth, which resulted in the nomination of 
James G. Blaine. He at once telegraphed to Mr. Blaine, "As the 
candidate of the republican party you will have my earnest and 
cordial support," and in the canvass which ensued he rendered 
all possible assistance to the republican cause and candidates. 
The national convention, in its resolutions, declared that "in 
the administration of President Arthur we recognize a wise, 
conservative, and patriotic policy, under which the country 
has been blessed with remarkable prosperity, and we believe 
his eminent services are entitled to and will receive the hearty 
approval of every citizen." The conventions in all the states 
had also unanimously passed resolutions commendatory of the 
administration. 

Mr. Arthur married, 29 Oct., 1859, Ellen Lewis Herndon, of 
Fredericksburg, Va., who died 12 Jan., 1880, leaving two chil- 
dren, Chester Alan Arthur, born 25 July, 1865, who resides in 
Europe, and Ellen Herndon Arthur, born 21 Nov., 1871, who 
lives in Albany with her aunt Mrs. McElroy. Their first child, 
William L. H. Arthur, was born 10 Dec, i860, and died 8 July, 
1863. Mrs. Arthur was the daughter of Commander William 
Lewis Herndon, of the United States navy, who, in i85i-'2, 
explored the Amazon river under orders of the government. 
He perished in a terrific gale at sea, 12 Sept., 1857, on the 
way from Havana to New York, while in command of the mer- 
chant-steamer "Central America." 

In person, Mr. Arthur was tall, large, well-proportioned, 
and of distinguished presence. His manners were always af- 
fable. He was genial in domestic and social life, and warmly 



CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR. 



465 



beloved by his personal friends. He conducted his ofificial 
intercourse with unvarying courtesy, and dispensed the liberal 
hospitalities of the executive mansion with ease and dignity, 
and in such a way as to meet universal commendation from 
citizens and foreigners alike. He had a full and strong mind, 
literary taste and culture, a retentive memory, and was apt in 
illustration by analogy and anecdote. He reasoned coolly and 
logically, and was never one-sided. The style of his state 
papers is simple and direct. He was eminently conscientious, 
wise, and just in purpose and act as a public ofificial; had al- 
ways the courage to follow his deliberate convictions, and 
remained unmoved by importunity or attack. He succeeded 
to the presidency under peculiarly distressing circumstances. 
The faction- 
al feeling in 
the republi- 
can party, 
which the -^i^^ 
year before 
had resulted 
in the nom- 
ination of 
Gen. Garfield 
for president 
as the repre- 
sentative of 
one faction, 
and of him- 
self for vice-president as the representative of the other, had 
measurably subsided during the canvass and the following win- 
ter, only to break out anew immediately after the inauguration 
of the new administration, and a fierce controversy was raging 
when the assassination of President Garfield convulsed the na- 
tion and created the gravest apprehensions. Cruel misjudg- 
ments were formed and expressed by men who would now hesi- 
tate to admit them. The long weeks of alternating hope and 
fear that preceded the president's death left the public mind 
perturbed and restless. Doubt and uneasiness were everywhere 
apparent. The delicacy and discretion displayed by the vice- 
president had compelled approval, but had not served wholly 
to disarm prejudice, and when he took the murdered president's 




466 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

place the whole people were in a state of tense and anxious 
expectancy, of which, doubtless, he was most painfully con- 
scious. All fears, however, were speedily and happily dis- 
pelled. The new president's inaugural was explicit, judicious, 
and reassuring, and his purpose not to administer his high 
office in the spirit of former faction, although by it he lost some 
friendships, did much toward healing the dissensions within the 
dominant party. His conservative administration of the gov- 
ernment commanded universal confidence, preserved public 
order and promoted business activity. If his conduct of 
affairs be criticised as lacking aggressiveness, it may confi- 
dently be replied that aggressiveness would have been unfortu- 
nate, if not disastrous. Rarely has there been a time when 
an indiscreet president could have wrought more mischief. It 
was not a time for showy exploits or brilliant experimentation. 
Above all else, the people needed rest from the strain and ex- 
citement into which the assassination of their president had 
plunged them. The course chosen by President Arthur was 
the wisest and most desirable that was possible. If apparently 
negative in itself, it was positive, far-reaching, and most salu- 
tary in its results. The service which at this crisis in public 
aft'airs he thus rendered to the country must be accounted the 
greatest of his personal achievements, and the most important 
result of his administration. As such, it should be placed in 
its true light before the reader of the future; and in this spirit, 
for the purpose of historical accuracy only, it is here given the 
prominence it deserves. His administration, considered as a 
whole, was responsive to every national demand, and stands in 
all its departments substantially without assault or criticism. 

The ex-president died suddenly, of apoplexy, at his resi- 
dence. No. 123 Lexington avenue. New York, Thursday morn- 
ing, 18 Nov., 1886. The funeral services were held on the fol- 
lowing Monday, at the Church of the Heavenly Rest.* Presi- 
dent Cleveland and his cabinet, Chief-Justice Waite, ex-President 



* Arthur was an Episcopalian, as were Washington, Madison, Monroe, 
William Henry Harrison, Tyler, and Taylor; Buchanan, Lincoln, Johnson, 
Cleveland, and Benjamin Harrison, Presbyterians ; Polk, Grant, and Hayes, 
Methodists ; John Adams and his son, and Fillmore, Unitarians ; Jefferson 
was accused of being an atheist ; Van Buren, Dutch Reformed ; and Garfield 
was a preacher of the Church of the Disciples. — Editor. 



CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR. 



467 



Hayes, James G. Blaine, Gens. Sherman, Sheridan, and Schofield, 
and the surviving members of President Arthur's cabinet, were 
present. On the same day a special train conveyed his remains 
to Albany, N. Y., where they were placed by the side of his wife 
in the family burial place in Rural cemetery. In June, 1889, a 
monument was erected over his grave that is represented in the 
vignette on a previous page. It is 
a polished granite sarcophagus, and 
on one side stands a beautiful he- 
roic bronze figure of Sorrow. 




Mary Arthur McElroy, born 
in Greenwich, Washington co., N. Y., 
in 1842. She is the youngest child 
of the Rev. William Arthur and the 
sister of Chester A. Arthur. Her 
education was completed in Troy, 
at the seminary of which Mrs. Emma 
Willard was prmcipal. In 1861 she 
married John E. McElroy, of Al- 
bany, and since that event she has 

resided in that city. During the administration of her brother 
she made her home in Washington in the winter season, and 
dispensed the hospitalities of the White House with rare social 
tact, the place being one for which she was peculiarly fitted by 
her personal character and previous associations. 



•i^|c 



/^^i*^ /I. At^^/Lry,. 



31 



GROVER CLEVELAND. 

Grover Cleveland, twenty - second president of the 
United States, was born in Caldwell*, Essex co.. New Jer- 
sey, i8 March, 1837. On the paternal side he is of English 
origin. Moses Cleveland emigrated from Ipswich, county of 
Suffolk, England, in 1635, and settled at Woburn, Mass., where 
he died in 1701. His grandson was Aaron, whose son, Aaron, 
was great-great-grandfather of Grover. The second Aaron's 
grandson, William, was a silversmith and watchmaker at Nor- 
wich, Conn. His son, Richard Falley Cleveland, was gradu- 
ated at Yale in 1824, was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry 
in 1829, and in the same year married Anne Neal, daughter of 
a Baltimore merchant of Irish birth. These two were the 
parents of Grover Cleveland. The Presbyterian parsonage 
at Caldwell, where Mr. Cleveland was born, was first occupied 
by the Rev. Stephen Grover, in whose honor the boy was 
named; but the first name was early dropped, and he has been 
known as Grover Cleveland. When he was four years old his 
father accepted a call to Fayetteville, near Syracuse, N. Y., 
where the son had an academy schooling, and afterward was a 
clerk in a country store. The removal of the family to Clin- 
ton, Oneida co., gave Grover additional educational advantages 
in the academy there. In his seventeenth year he became a 
clerk and an assistant teacher in the New York institution for 
the blind in New York city, in which his elder brother, William, 
an alumnus of Hamilton college, now a Presbyterian clergy- 
man at Forest Port, N. Y., was then a teacher. In 1855 Grover 
left Holland Patent, in Oneida co., where his mother then re- 
sided, to go to the west in search of employment. On his way 
he stopped at Black Rock, now a part of Buffalo, where his 
uncle, Lewis F. Allen, induced him to remain and aid him in the 
compilation of a volume of the "American Herd-Book," re- 




H.E.Hall.Jr 



^.^ ^^ 




D , Appletou & Co, 




"1» 



G ROVER CLEVELAND. 



409 



ceiving for six weeks' service $60. He afterward assisted in 
the preparation of several other volumes of this work, and the 
preface to the fifth volume (1861) acknowledges his services. 
In August, 1855, he secured a place as clerk and copyist for the 
law firm of Rogers, Bowen & Rogers, in Buffalo, began to read 
Blackstone, and in the autumn of that year was receiving four 
dollars a week for his work. He was admitted to the bar in 
1859, but for three years longer he remained with the firm that 
first employed him, acting as managing clerk at a salary of 
$600, soon advanced to $1,000, a part of which he devoted to 
the support of his widowed mother, who died in 1882. He was 
appointed assistant district attorney of Erie co., i Jan., 1863, 
and held the office for three years. At this time strenuous 
efforts were being made to bring the civil war to a close. Two 
of Cleveland's brothers were in the army, and his mother and 
sisters were dependent largely upon him for support. Unable 
to enlist, he borrowed money to send a substitute, and it was not 
till long after the war that he was able to repay the loan. In 
1865, at the age of twenty-eight, he was the democratic candi- 
date for district attorney, but was defeated by the republican 
candidate, his intimate friend, Lyman K. Bass. He then be- 
came a law partner of Isaac V. Vanderpool, and in 1869 became 
a member of the firm of Lanning, Cleveland & Folsom. He 
continued a successful practice till 1870, when he was elected 
sheriff of Erie county. At the expiration of his three-years' 
term he formed a law partnership with his personal friend and 
political antagonist, Lyman K. Bass, the firm being Bass, Cleve- 
land & Bissell, and, after the forced retirement from failing 
health of Mr. Bass, Cleveland & Bissell. The firm was pros- 
perous, and Cleveland attained high rank as a lawyer, noted 
for the simplicity and directness of his logic and expression 
and thorough mastery of his cases. 

In the autumn of 1881 he was nominated democratic candi- 
date for mayor of Buffalo, and was elected by a majority of 
3,530. the largest ever given to a candidate in that city. In 
the same election the republican state ticket was carried in 
Buffalo by an average majority of over 1,600; but Cleveland 
had a partial republican, independent, and " reform " movement 
support. He entered upon the office, i Jan., 1882. He soon 
became known as the "veto mayor," using that prerogative 
fearlessly in checking unwise, illegal, or extravagant expendi- 



470 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



ture of the public money, and enforcing strict compliance 
with the requirements of the state constitution and the city 
charter. By vetoing extravagant appropriations he saved the 
city nearly $1,000,000 in the first six months of his adminis- 
tration. He opposed giving $500 of the tax-payers' money to 
the Firemen's benevolent society, on the ground that such ap- 
propriation was not permissible under the terms of the state 
constitution and the charter of the city. He vetoed a resolu- 
tion diverting $500 from the Fourth-of-July appropriation to 
the observance of Memorial day for the same reason, and im- 
mediately subscribed one tenth of the sum wanted for the pur- 
pose. His admirable, impartial, and courageous administration 
won tributes to his mtegrity and ability from the press and 
the people irrespective of party. 

On the second day of the democratic state convention at 
Syracuse, 22 Sept., 1882, on the third ballot, by a vote of 211 
out of 382, Grover Cleveland was nominated for governor, in 
opposition to Charles J. Folger, then secretary of the U. S. 
treasury, nommated for the same office three days before by 
the republican state convention at Saratoga. In his letter ac- 
cepting this nomination Mr. Cleveland wrote: "Public officers 
are the servants and agents of the people, to execute the laws 
which the people have made, and within the limits of a consti- 
tution which they have established. . . . We may, I think, re- 
duce to quite simple elements the duty which public servants 
owe, by constantly bearing in mind that they are put in place 
to protect the rights of the people, to answer their needs as 
they arise, and to expend for their benefit the money drawn 
from them by taxation," 

In the canvass that followed, Cleveland had the advantage 
of a united democratic party, and in addition the support of 
the entire independent press of the state. The election in 
November was the most remarkable in the political annals of 
New York. Both gubernatorial candidates were men of char- 
acter and of unimpeachable public record. Judge Folger had 
honorably filled high state and federal offices. But there was 
a wide-spread disaffection in the republican ranks largely due 
to the belief that the nomination of Folger (nowise obnoxious 
in itself) was accomplished by means of improper and fraudu- 
lent practices in the nominating convention and by the inter- 
ference of the federal administration. What were called the 



GROVER CLEVELAND. 



471 



" half-breeds " largely stayed away from the polls, and in a 
total vote of 918,894 Cleveland received a plurality of 192,854 
over Folger, and a majority over all, including greenback, 
prohibition, and scattering, of 151,742. He entered upon his 
office I Jan., 1883, in the words of his inaugural address, "fully 
appreciating his relations to the people, and determined to 
serve them faithfully and well." With very limited private 
means. Gov. Cleveland lived upon and within his official salary, 
simply and unostentatiously, keeping no carriage, and daily 
walking to and from his duties at the capitol. 

Among the salient acts of his administration were his ap- 
proval of a bill to submit to the people a proposition to abol- 
ish contract labor in the prisons, which they adopted by an 
overwhelming majority; his veto of a bill that permitted wide 
latitude in the investments of savings banks; and the veto of 
a similar bill allowing like latitude in the investment of securi- 
ties of fire insurance companies. He vetoed a bill that was a 
bold effort to establish a monopoly by limiting the right to con- 
struct certain street railways to companies heretofore organ- 
ized, to the exclusion of such as should hereafter obtain the 
consent of property-owners and local authorities. His much- 
criticised veto of the "five-cent-fare" bill, which proposed to 
reduce the rates of fare on the elevated roads in New York 
city from ten cents to five cents for all hours in the day, was 
simply and solely because he considered the enactment illegal 
and a breach of the plighted faith of the state. The general 
railroad law of 1850 provides for an examination by state 
officers into the earnings of railroads before the rates of fare 
can be reduced, and as this imperative condition had not been 
complied with previous to the passage of the bill, he vetoed it. 
He vetoed the Buffalo fire department bill because he believed 
its provisions would prevent the "economical and efficient ad- 
ministration of an important department in a large city," and 
subject it to partisan and personal influences. In the second 
year of his administration he approved the bill enacting impor- 
tant reforms in the appointment and administration of certain 
local offices in New York city. His state administration was 
only an expansion of the fundamental principles that controlled 
his official action while mayor of Buffalo. Its integrity, ability, 
and success made him a prominent candidate for president. 

The democratic national convention met at Chicago, 8 July, 



472 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 




1884. Three days were devoted to organization, platform, 
and speeches in favor of candidates. In the evening of 10 
July a vote was taken, in which, out of 820 votes, Grover 
Cleveland received 392. A two-third vote (557) was necessary 
to a nomination. On the following morning, in the first ballot, 
Cleveland received 683 votes, and, on motion of Thomas A. 
Hendricks (subsequently nominated for the vice-presidency), 
the vote was made unanimous. He was officially notified of 
his nomination by the convention committee at Albany, 29 
July, and made a modest response, promising soon to signify 

in a more formal man- 
ner his acceptance of 
the nomination, which 
he did by letter on 
18 Aug., 1884. In it 
he said, among other 
things : 

" When an election 
to office shall be the 
selection by the voters 
of one of their number 
to assume for a time a public trust, instead of his dedication 
to the profession of politics ; when the holders of the ballot, 
quickened by a sense of duty, shall avenge truth betrayed and 
pledges broken, and when the suffrage shall be altogether free 
and uncorrupted, the full realization of a government by the 
people will be at hand. And of the means to this end, not one 
would, in my judgment, be more effective than an amendment to 
the constitution disqualifying the president from re-election. . . . 
" A true American sentiment recognizes the dignity of labor, 
and the fact that honor lies in honest toil. Contented labor is 
an element of national prosperity. Ability to work constitutes 
the capital and the wage of labor, the income of a vast number 
of our population, and this interest should be jealously pro- 
tected. Our working-men are not asking unreasonable indul- 
gence, but, as intelligent and manly citizens, they seek the 
same consideration which those demand who have other inter- 
ests at stake. They should receive their full share of the care 
and attention of those who make and execute the laws, to the 
end that the wants and needs of the employers and the em- 
ployed shall alike be subserved, and the prosperity of the 



GROVER CLEVELAND. 473 

country, the common heritage of both, be advanced. As re- 
lated to this subject, while we should not discourage the immi- 
gration of those who come to acknowledge allegiance to our 
government, and add to our citizen population, yet, as a means 
of protection to our working-men, a different rule should pre- 
vail concerning those who, if they come or are brought to our 
land, do not intend to become Americans, but will injuriously 
compete with those justly entitled to our field of labor. . . . 

" In a free country the curtailment of the absolute rights of 
the individual should only be such as is essential to the peace 
and good order of the community. The limit between the 
proper subjects of governmental control, and those which can 
be more fittingly left to the moral sense and self-imposed re- 
straint of the citizen, should be carefully kept in view. Thus, 
laws unnecessarily interfering with the habits and customs of 
any of our people which are not offensive to the moral senti- 
ments of the civilized world, and which are consistent with 
good citizenship and the public welfare, are unwise and vexa- 
tious. The commerce of a nation to a great extent determines 
its supremacy. Cheap and easy transportation should therefore 
be liberally fostered. Within the limits of the constitution, the 
general government should so improve and protect its natural 
water-ways as will enable the producers of the country to reach 
a profitable market. ... If I should be called to the chief mag- 
istracy of the nation by the suffrages of my fellow-citizens, I 
will assume the duties of that high office with a solemn deter- 
mination to dedicate every effort to the country's good, and 
with a humble reliance upon the favor and support of the 
Supreme Being, who I believe will always bless honest human 
endeavor in the conscientious discharge of public duty." 

The canvass that followed was more remarkable for the 
discussion of the personal characters and qualifications of the 
candidates than for the prominent presentation of political 
issues. In the election (4 Nov.) four candidates were in the 
field, viz. : Grover Cleveland, of New York, democratic ; James 
G. Blaine, of Maine, republican ; Benjamin F. Butler, of Massa- 
chusetts, labor and greenback ; John P. St. John, of Kansas, 
prohibition. The total popular vote was 10,067,610, divided as 
follows: Cleveland, 4,874,986; Blaine, 4,851,981 ; Butler, 175,370; 
St. John, 150,369; blank, defective, and scattering, 14,904. Of 
the 401 electoral votes, Cleveland received 219, and Blaine 182. 



474 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



In December the executive committee of the National civil 
service reform league addressed a letter to President-elect 
Cleveland, commending to his care the interests of civil-service 
reform. In his reply, dated 25 Dec, he declared that " a prac- 
tical reform in the civil service was demanded " ; that to it he 
was pledged by his " conception of true democratic faith and 
public duty," as well as by his past utterances. He added : 
" There is a class of government positions which are not within 
the letter of the civil-service statute, but which are so discon- 
nected with the policy of an administration that the removal 
therefrom of present incumbents, in my opinion, should not be 
made during the terms for which they were appointed, solely 
on partisan grounds, and for the purpose of putting in their 
places those who are in political accord with the appointing 
power. But many now holding such positions have forfeited 
all just claim to retention, because they have used their places for 
party purposes in disregard of their duty to the people, and be- 
cause, instead of being decent public servants, they have 
proved themselves offensive partisans, and unscrupulous 
manipulators of local party management. The lessons of the 
past should be unlearned, and such officials, as well as their 
successors, should be taught that efficiency, fitness, and devo- 
tion to public duty are the conditions of their continuance in 
public place, and that the quiet and unobtrusive exercise of in- 
dividual political rights is the reasonable measure of their 
party service. . . . Selections for office not embraced within 
the civil-service rules will be based upon sufficient inquiry as 
to fitness, instituted by those charged with that duty, rather 
than upon persistent importunity or self-solicited recommenda- 
tions on behalf of candidates for appointment." 

When the New York legislature assembled, 6 Jan., 1885, 
Mr. Cleveland resigned the governorship of the state. On 27 
Feb. was published a letter of the president-elect in answer to 
one signed by several members of Congress, in which he indi- 
cated his opposition to an increased coinage of silver, and sug- 
gested a suspension of the purchase and coinage of that metal 
as a measure of safety, in order to prevent a financial crisis 
and the ultimate expulsion of gold by silver. His inaugural 
address was written during the ten days previous to his setting 
out for Washington. On 4 March he went to the capital in 
company with President Arthur, and after the usual prelimi- 



816 MADISON AVENUE. 



2' ^^^ 







^^ 



GEO VER CLE VELA ND. 



475 



naries had been completed he delivered his inaugural address 
from the eastern steps of the capitol, in the presence of a vast 
concourse. At its conclusion the oath of office was adminis- 
tered by Chief-Justice Waite. He then reviewed from the 
White House the inaugural parade, a procession numbering 
more than 100,000 men. In the address he urged the people of 
all parties to lay aside political animosities in order to sustain 
the government. He declared his approval of the Monroe doc- 
trine as a guide in foreign relations, of strict economy in the 
admmistration of the finances, of the protection of the Indians 
and their elevation to citizenship, of the security of the freed- 
men in their rights, and of the laws against Mormon polygamy 
and the importation of a servile class of foreign laborers. In 
respect to appointments to office he said that the people de- 
mand the application of business principles to public affairs, 
and also that the people have a right to protection from the 
incompetency of public employes, who hold their places solely 
as a reward for partisan service, and those who worthily seek 
public employment have a right to insist that merit and compe- 
tency shall be recognized, instead of party subserviency or the 
surrender of honest political belief. On the following day he 
sent to the senate the nominations for his cabinet officers as 
follows : Secretary of state, Thomas F. Bayard, of Delaware ; 
secretary of the treasury, Daniel Manning, of New York ; sec- 
retary of war, William C. Endicott, of Massachusetts ; secretary 
of the navy, William C. Whitney, of New York ; postmaster- 
general, William F. Vilas, of Wisconsin ; attorney-general, 
Augustus H. Garland, of Arkansas ; secretary of the interior, 
Lucius Q. C. Lamar, of Mississippi. The nominations were 
promptly confirmed. On 12 March, 1885, President Cleveland 
withdrew from the senate, which met in extra session to take 
action on appointments and other business connected with the 
new administration, the Spanish reciprocity and Nicaragua 
canal treaties, in order that they might be considered by the 
new executive. On 13 March he issued a proclamation an- 
nouncing the intention of the government to remove from the 
Oklahoma country, in Indian territory, the white intruders 
who sought to settle there, which was done shortly afterward 
by a detachment of soldiers. By his refusal at once to remove 
certain officials for the purpose of putting in their place mem- 
bers of his own party he came into conflict v/ith many influen- 



476 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

tial men, who advocated the speedy removal of republican 
office-holders and the appointment of democrats, in order to 
strengthen the party as a political organization. At the same 
time the republicans and some of the civil-service reformers 
complained of other appointments as not being in accord with 
the professions of the president. " Offensive partisanship " 
was declared by the president to be a ground for removal, and 
numerous republican functionaries were displaced under that 
rule, while the term became a common phrase in political no- 
menclature. When disturbances threatened to break out be- 
tween the Cheyennes and the Arapahoes in Indian territory, 
Gen. Sheridan, at the request of the president, visited that 
country in order to study the cause of the troubles. He re- 
ported that the threatened outbreak was the result of the occu- 
pation of Indian lands by cattle-owners who leased vast areas 
from the Indians at a merely nominal rental. The legal offi- 
cers of the government decided that these leases were contrary 
to law and invalid. The president thereupon issued a procla- 
mation warning all cattle companies and ranchmen to remove 
their herds from Indian territory within forty days, and en- 
forced the order, notwithstanding their strenuous objection. 

In his message at the opening of the first session of the 49th 
congress on 8 Dec, 1885, President Cleveland recommended in- 
creased appropriations for the consular and diplomatic service, 
the abolition of duties on works of art, the reduction of the 
tariff on necessaries of life, the suspension of compulsory silver 
coinage, the improvement of the navy, the appointment of six 
general Indian commissioners, reform in the laws under which 
titles to the public lands are required from the government, 
more stringent laws for the suppression of polygamy in Utah, 
an act to prohibit the immigration of Mormons, the extension 
of the principle of civil-service reform, and an increase in the 
salaries of the commissioners, and the passage of a law to de- 
termine the order of presidential succession in the event of a 
vacancy. The senate, sitting in secret session for the consid- 
eration of the president's appointments, called for the papers on 
file in the departments relating to the causes for which certain 
officers had been removed. Upon the refusal of the president 
to submit the documents to their inspection, a dispute ensued, 
and threats were uttered by republican senators that no ap- 
pointments should be confirmed unless their right to inspect 



GROVER CLEVELAND. 



A77 



papers on the official files was conceded. On i March, 1886, 
he sent a long message to the senate, in which he took the 
ground that under the constitution the right of removal or sus- 
pension from office lay entirely within the power and discretion 
of the president ; that sections of the tenure-of-office act requir- 
ing him to report to the senate reasons for suspending officers 
had been repealed ; and that the papers that the senate de- 
manded to see were not official, but were of a personal and 
private nature. Eventually most of the appointments of the 
president were ratified. During the first fiscal year of his ad- 
ministration the proportion of postmasters throughout the 
country removed or suspended was but little larger than 
had often followed a change of administration in the same 
political party. 

In his second annual message he called the attention of 
congress to the large excess of the revenues of the country 
beyond the needs of government, and urged such a reduction 
as would release to the people the increasing and unnecessary 
surplus of national income, by such an amendment of the rev- 
enue laws as would cheapen the price of the necessaries of life 
and give freer entrance to such imported materials as could be 
manufactured by American labor into marketable commodities. 
He recommended tne erection of coast defences on land, and 
the construction of modern ships of war for the navy; argued 
for the civilization of the Indians by the dissolution of tribal 
relations, the settlement of their reservations in severalty, and 
the correction of abuses in the disposition of the public lands. 
He urged the adoption of liberal general pension laws to meet 
all possible cases, and protested against legislation for a favored 
few, as an injustice to the many who were equally deserving. 

He approved a bill to regulate the questions arising be- 
tween the railroads and the people, and appointed an interstate 
commerce commission under its provisions. A number of bills 
providing for the erection of public buildings in various parts 
of the country were vetoed, on the ground that they were not 
required by the public business; and while he approved 186 
private pension' bills, he vetoed 42 for various reasons; some 
being covered by general laws, others were to his mind un- 
worthy and fraudulent, and others were not so favorable to 
the claimant as the general laws already passed. A dependent 
pension bill, permitting a pension of $12 per month to all sol- 



478 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



diers and sailors who served in the war for the Union, upon 
the ground of service and present disability alone, whether in- 
curred in the service or since, was vetoed, on the ground that 
a sufficient time had not elapsed since the war to justify a gen- 
eral service pension ; that its terms were too uncertain and 
yielding to insure its just and impartial execution; that the 
honest soldiers of the country would prefer not to be regarded 
as objects of charity, as was proposed ; and that its enactment 
would put a wholly uncalled-for and enormous annual burden 
upon the country for very many years to come. The veto was 
sustained. Vetoing an appropriation for the distribution of 
seeds to drought-stricken counties of Texas, he said: 

"I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the 
constitution ; and I do not believe that the power and duty of 
the general government ought to be extended to the relief of 
individual suffering which in no manner properly related to the 
public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard 
the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be 
steadfastly resisted, to the end that the lesson should be con- 
stantly enforced that though the people support the govern- 
ment, the government should not support the people." 

As he had done while governor, so now as president, Mr. 
Cleveland exercised the veto power with great freedom. This 
was particularly true during the session of congress which end- 
ed 5 Aug., 1886, when of 987 bills which passed both houses he 
vetoed 1 15. 

In October, 1886, accompanied by Mrs. Cleveland and sev- 
eral personal friends, the president made a tour of the west and 
south in response to invitations from those sections, which in- 
volved about 5,000 miles of railroad travel and occupied three 
weeks. He was enthusiastically received by the people, and 
made speeches at Indianapolis, St. Louis, Chicago, Minneapolis, 
Kansas City, Atlanta, and other cities. In December, 1887, 
departing from custom, he devoted his annual message to the 
presentation of a single subject, namely, the reduction of the 
tariff. He advocated a radical modification of the existing 
policy by the adoption of a law framed with a view to the ulti- 
mate establishment of the principles of free trade. The repub- 
licans immediately took up the issue thus presented, and the 
question at once became a predominant issue of the canvass. 
Cleveland was unanimously renominated by the national demo- 



GROVER CLEVELAND. 



479 



cratic convention in St. Louis, on 5 June, 1888. The efforts of 
both parties were directed chiefly to the doubtful states of 
Indiana, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Cleveland 
carried all the southern states, and in the north New Jersey 
and Connecticut, while of the doubtful states Gen. Harrison 
received the votes of New York and Indiana. Of the electoral 
votes Harrison received 233, Cleveland 168. The popular vote 
for Cleveland numbered 5,540,329, that for Harrison 5,439,853. 
At the close of his administration, on 4 March, 1889, Mr. 
Cleveland retired to New York city, where he re-entered upon 
the practice of his profession. As a private citizen he con- 
tinued to exert a powerful influence upon his party and public 
sentiment by frequent expression of his opinions on important 
public questions. These expressions were always based upon 
an implicit belief that 

tice of the people ^ ^"^■^^^^^^^^I^^I 
would not tolerate :-rr — ^7--^^-^3g^^5 . k^^^ ^^^^^tgjy g^' 
demagogism, but de- ,_,;;;^|*I^«S^-^'^^^^ 
manded of any leader 

the truth fearlessly spoken. Conscious of a strong public de- 
mand that he should again be the democratic candidate for 
president, and of the personal consequence to him of his every 
word and act, he constantly stated his views with the courage 
and candor which had characterized his whole public life. A 
notable instance of this was his famous letter of 10 Feb., 1891, 
addressed to a public meeting in New York city, which had 
been called to protest against a bill then pending in congress 
for the free and unlimited coinage of silver. There was grave 
danger that the bill would be enacted. Behind it was a strong 
public sentiment, including probably a majority in congress of 
his own party. His opposition insured, it was believed, the 
failure of the bill, but also of all chance for his renomination. 
Yet, impelled by a sense of public duty which would not con- 
sider personal consequences, he declared his belief " that the 
greatest peril would be invited by the adoption of the scheme " ; 
and he denounced "the dangerous and reckless experiment of 
free, unlimited, and independent silver coinage." The bill was 
defeated. Notwithstanding the opposition and predictions of 
many leaders of his party, the demand for his renomination 
steadily increased. The great cause of tariff reform, which as 



480 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

president he had championed and which had carried the coun- 
try in the elections of 1890, was evidently to be the principal 
issue in the campaign of 1892, and he was the natural and 
logical leader. At the national democratic convention which 
met in Chicago, 22 June, 1892, he was nominated on the first 
ballot, receiving more than two-thirds of the votes of the con- 
vention, though bitterly and unanimously opposed by the dele- 
gation from his own state. In his speech of acceptance deliv- 
ered to a great audience in Madison Square Garden, New York, 
and later in his formal letter of acceptance of 26 Sept., 1892, 
he emphasized the need of tariff reform, and made it the lead- 
ing issue between the parties. In his letter he said : 

" Tariff reform is still our purpose. Though we oppose the 
theory that tariff laws may be passed having for their object 
the granting of discriminating and unfair governmental aid to 
private ventures, we wage no exterminating war against any 
American interests. We believe a readjustment can be accom- 
plished, in accordance with the principles we profess, without 
disaster or demolition. We believe that the advantages of 
freer raw material should be accorded to our manufacturers, 
and we contemplate a fair and careful distribution of necessary 
tariff burdens, rather than the precipitation of free trade." 

He denounced " the attempt of the opponents of democracy 
to interfere with and control the suffrage of the states through 
federal agencies" as "a design, which no explanation can 
.mitigate, to reverse the fundamental and safe relations be- 
tween the people and their government." He advocated 
"sound and honest money," declaring: "Whatever may be the 
form of the people's currency, national or state — whether gold, 
silver, or paper — it should be so regulated and guarded by 
governmental action, or by wise and careful laws, that no one 
can be deluded as to the certainty and stability of its value. 
Every dollar put into the hands of the people should be of the 
same intrinsic value or purchasing power. With this condition 
absolutely guaranteed, both gold and silver can safely be util- 
ized upon equal terms in the adjustment of our currency." He 
also urged " an honest adherence to the letter and spirit of 
civil service reform," "liberal consideration for our worthy 
veteran soldiers and for the families of those who have died," 
but insisting that "our pension roll should be a roll of honor, 
uncontaminated by ill desert and unvitiated by demagogic use." 



G ROVER CLEVELAND. 



481 



After a most vigorous campaign and a thorough discussion 
of important principles and measures, the democratic party 
won an overwhelming victory, reversing the electoral vote of 
1888 and largely increasing its popular plurality, and carrying 
both the senate and house of representatives. The ticket car- 
ried twenty-three states, including the doubtful states of New 
York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Indiana, and for the first 
time in years in a presidential contest Illinois and Wisconsin. 
The popular vote was 5,553,142 for Cleveland, 5,186,931 for 
Harrison, 1,030,128 for Weaver, of the "people's party," and 
268,361 for Bidwell, the prohibitionist. In the electoral col- 
lege Mr. Cleveland received 276 votes. Gen. Harrison 145, and 
Mr. Weaver 23. On 4 March, 1893, Mr. Cleveland was for a 
second time inaugurated president, being the first instance in 
this country of a president re-elected after an interim.* He 
immediately nominated, and the senate promptly confirmed, as 
his cabinet Walter Q. Gresham, of Indiana, secretary of state; 
John G. Carlisle, of Kentucky, secretary of the treasury ; Daniel 
S. Lamont, of New York, secretary of war ; Richard Olney, of 
Massachusetts, attorney-general ; Wilson S. Bissell, of New 
York, postmaster-general ; Hilary A. Herbert, of Alabama, 
secretary of the navy ; Hoke Smith, of Georgia, secretary of 
the interior; and J. Sterling Morton, of Nebraska, secretary of 
agriculture. Judge Gresham died on 28 May, 1895, having 
held office but a few months, and was succeeded by the attor- 
ney-general, Mr. Olney, whose place was taken by Judson Har- 
mon, of Ohio. A little later Postmaster-General Bissell resigned 
and was succeeded by William L. Wilson, of Virginia. In Au- 

* Except Grover Cleveland, no president has been re-elected unless he was 
a military man, or held a chief executive office during a war period. Washing- 
ton was a soldier of the Revolution ; Jefferson, governor of Virginia during that 
war ; Madison, president during the second war with Great Britain ; Monroe, 
a revolutionary officer; Jackson, the hero of the War of 1812; Lincoln, a 
soldier and president during the war of the rebellion ; and Grant, a soldier of 
the Mexican and civil wars. 

Referring to the post-official career of the presidents, it appears that six 
of the twenty-three — Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Johnson, and 
Hayes — became planters or farmers upon retiring from public life ; that five — 
Van Buren, Fillmore, Tyler, Grant, and Cleveland — openly endeavored to ob- 
tain another term ; that five — Van Buren, Polk, Fillmore, Pierce, and Grant — 
traveled extensively at the close of their official career ; and that three — John 
Adams, Pierce, and Buchanan — sooner or later became recluses. — Editor. 



482 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



gust, 1896, Secretary Smith resigned and the president ap- 
pointed in his place David R. Francis, of Missouri. 

Grave and difficult questions at once confronted his ad- 
ministration. A treaty for the annexation of the Hawaiian 
islands to the territory of the United States had, on 14 Feb., 
1893, been concluded between President Harrison and commis- 
sioners representing a provisional government of the islands, 
and had been transmitted to the senate on the day following, 
but had not yet been acted upon. The provisional government 
had been established on 17 Jan., 1893, by the overthrow of the 
constitutional ruler of the islands. Serious doubts existed as 
to the authority and validity of the provisional government 
and as to the part taken by our government, through our min- 
isters and troops, in aiding its establishment. President Har- 
rison, in his message to the senate submitting the treaty, de- 
clared that " the overthrow of the monarchy was not in any way 
promoted by this government." On the other hand, the queen 
and her ministers filed with the treaty a protest, asserting that 
when she yielded to the provisional government she had yielded 
to the superior force of the United States. In order that this 
vital question of fact might be impartially investigated and de- 
termined. President Cleveland at once withdrew the treaty and 
dispatched to the islands James H. Blount, of Georgia, as a 
special commissioner to make full examination and report. 

On 18 Dec, 1893, in a special message to congress, he trans- 
mitted the report of the commissioner with all the evidence and 
papers connected with the case. In his message, after review- 
ing all the facts and confirming the finding of the commissioner, 
he declared that he believed " that a candid and thorough ex- 
amination of the facts will force the conviction that the pro- 
visional government owes its existence to an armed invasion 
by the United States. . . . The lawful government of Hawaii 
was overthrown without the drawing of a sword or the firing 
of a shot, by a process every step of which, it may safely be 
asserted, is directly traceable to and dependent for its success 
upon the agency of the United States acting through its diplo- 
matic and naval representatives." 

Referring to the principles which should govern the case, 
he said : "I suppose that right and justice should determine 
the path to be followed in treating this subject. If national 
honesty is to be disregarded and a desire for territorial exten- 



GROVER CLEVELAND. 



483 



sion or dissatisfaction with a form of government not our own 
ought to regulate our conduct, I have entirely misapprehended 
the mission and character of our government and the behaviour 
which the conscience of our people demands of their public 
servants. . . . 

"A man of true honor protects the unwritten word which 
binds his conscience more scrupulously, if possible, than he 
does the bond, a breach of which subjects him to legal liabili- 
ties; and the United States, in aiming to maintain itself as one 
of the most enlightened of nations, would do its citizens gross 
injustice if it applied to its international relations any other 
than a high standard of honor and morality. On that ground 
the United States can not properly be put in the position of 
countenancing a wrong after its commission any more than in 
that of consenting to it in advance. On that ground it can 
not allow itself to refuse to redress an injury inflicted through 
an abuse of power by officers clothed with its authority and 
wearing its uniform; and on the same ground, if a feeble but 
friendly state is in danger of being robbed of its independence 
and its sovereignty by a misuse of the name and power of the 
United States, the United States can not fail to vindicate its 
honor and its sense of justice by an earnest effort to make all 
possible reparation. . . . 

" These principles apply to the present case with irresistible 
force when the special conditions of the queen's surrender of 
her sovereignty are recalled. She surrendered not to the pro- 
visional government, but to the United States. She surren- 
dered not absolutely and permanently, but temporarily and 
conditionally until such time as the facts can be considered by 
the United States. . . . 

" By an act of war, committed with the participation of a 
diplomatic representative of the United States and without 
authority of congress, the government of a feeble but friendly 
and confiding people has been overthrown. A substantial 
wrong has thus been done which a due regard for our national 
character as well as the rights of the injured people require we 
should endeavor to repair." 

He concluded by informing congress that he should not 
again submit the treaty of annexation to the senate ; that he 
had instructed our minister " to advise the queen and her sup- 
porters of his desire to aid in the restoration of the status ex- 
32 



484 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



isting before the lawless landing of the U. S. forces at Honolulu 
on i6 Jan. last, if such restoration could be effected upon 
terms providing for clemency as well as justice to all parties 
concerned "; and he commended the subject "to the extended 
powers and wide discretion of congress" for a solution "con- 
sistent with American honor, integrity, and morality." 

These proposals of the president met with strong opposition 
in congress, and in February, 1894, the senate committee on 
foreign relations made a report upholding Minister Stevens in 
his course with relation to the revolution. Previous to this, in 
December, 1893, Mr. Willis, the U. S. minister, had formally 
announced the president's policy to President Dole, who had 
returned a formal refusal to give up the government in accord- 
ance with that policy, at the same time denying the right of 
Mr. Cleveland to interfere. On 7 Feb., 1894, the house of rep- 
resentatives passed by a vote of 177 to 75 a resolution uphold- 
ing Mr. Cleveland's course and condemning annexation, but a 
similar resolution was tabled in the senate, 36 to 18, on 29 May, 
and on 31 May a resolution was adopted against interference 
by the United States. On 4 July, 1894, the constitution of the 
republic of Hawaii was formally proclaimed by the revolu- 
tionary government, and Mr. Dole was declared president until 
December, 1900. The U. S. senate passed a resolution favor- 
ing the recognition of the new republic, and thus the matter 
practically passed out of Mr. Cleveland's hands. 

This was not the only question of foreign policy that was 
forced upon the administration. Early in 1895 an insurrec- 
tion broke out on the island of Cuba. Mr. Cleveland at once 
took measures against violation of the neutrality laws, and 
in his message in December he appealed for the observation of 
strict neutrality as a "plain duty." Sympathy with the insur- 
gents was wide-spread, however, and it became increasingly 
difficult to detect filibustering expeditions, and still more so to 
indict and convict those guilty of violations of neutrality. The 
administration was blamed in Spain for supposed failure to en- 
force the law, and in the United States for attempting to en- 
force it too stringently. Strong efforts were made to induce 
the administration to recognize the insurgents as belligerents, 
and in April, 1896, a resolution in favor of such recognition 
passed both houses of congress. Mr. Cleveland disregarded 
these resolutions as being an attempt to invade the preroga- 



G ROVER CLEVELAND. 



485 



tive of the executive, and Secretary Olney stated publicly that 
the administration regarded them merely as "an expression of 
opinion on the part of a number of eminent gentlemen." Be- 
sides the resolutions just referred to others were introduced at 
various times providing for intervention, for special investiga- 
tion, and for recognition of the Cuban republic. On 3 June, 
1896, Mr. Cleveland sent Fitzhugh Lee to Havana as consul- 
general in place of Ramon O. Williams, and it was generally 
believed that Gen. Lee was expected to act in some sense as a 
special commissioner of the president, to report to him on the 
state of affairs in the island. Many expected that the appoint- 
ment would be only a preliminary to intervention, but the ad- 
ministration, though instructing Gen. Lee to guard the rights 
of American residents, continued to watch for filibustering ex- 
peditions and to intercept them when this was possible; and in 
July, 1896, the president issued a second proclamation of neu- 
trality, repeating in more explicit terms the one that had been 
put forth in 1895. Relations with Spain continued to require 
delicate management during the whole of the administration, 
the more notable events being the firing on the American 
steamer " Allianga " by a Spanish gunboat, for which apology 
was ultimately made by Spain, the condemnation to death of 
the crew of the alleged filibustering schooner " Competitor," 
which was finally suspended upon representation that the pris- 
oners had not received the trial by civil tribunal to which 
they were entitled by treaty, and the settlement by Spain, on 
14 Sept., 1895, of the long-standing claim of 1,500,000 pesos, as 
indemnity for the death in Cuba, in 1870, of Antonio Mora, a 
naturalized American citizen, and for the confiscation of his 
estates. It was charged by the enemies of the administration 
that this payment was made in pursuance of a secret agree- 
ment by which the United States bound itself to vigilant action 
in the suppression of filibustering. 

But the most conspicuous event in the relations of the ad- 
ministration with foreign countries was undoubtedly President 
Cleveland's Venezuela message, the act most highly praised as 
well as the most severely condemned of his whole public career. 
In his message to congress on 2 Dec, 1895, Mr. Cleveland 
called attention to the long-standing boundary dispute between 
Great Britain and Venezuela, and to the efforts of the U. S. 
government to induce the disputants to settle it by arbitration. 



486 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

Previously, in July, Secretary Olney, in a despatch to the Ameri- 
can ambassador in London, had called attention to the peculiar 
interest of the United States in the dispute, owing to the rela- 
tion of that dispute to the Monroe doctrine, and again urging 
arbitration. On 26 Nov. Lord Salisbury returned an answer 
in which he denied that the interests of the United States were 
necessarily concerned in such disputes, and refused to arbitrate 
except in regard to territory west of the Schomburgk line — a 
line surveyed by Great Britain in i84i-'4. 

These despatches were sent to congress on 17 Dec. together 
with a special message in which Mr. Cleveland stated that, as 
Great Britain had refused to arbitrate the dispute, it now be- 
came the duty of the United States to determine the boundary 
line by diligent inquiry, and asked for a special appropriation 
to defray the expenses of a commission to be appointed by the 
executive for that purpose. This commission was to report 
without delay. "When such report is made and accepted," the 
message went on, "it will, in my opinion, be the duty of the 
United States to resist by every means in its power, as a wilful 
aggression upon its rights and interests, the appropriation by 
Great Britain of any lands or the exercise of governmental 
jurisdiction over any territory which, after investigation, we 
have determined of right to belong to Venezuela." 

This message caused great excitement both in this country 
and Great Britain, being regarded as equivalent to a threat of 
war. The president's course, however, was almost unanimously 
upheld by both parties in congress, which immediately author- 
ized the appointment of a boundary commission, and this com- 
mission was immediately constituted by the appointment of 
Justice David J. Brewer, of the U. S. supreme court; Chief- 
Justice Alvey, of the court of appeals of the District of Colum- 
bia ; Andrew D. White, of New York ; Frederick R. Coudert, 
of New York; and Daniel C. Gilman, president of Johns Hop- 
kins university. 

The commission began at once to take testimony and ac- 
cumulated a vast amount of data, but before it was prepared 
to make its formal report, the excitement due to the message 
had subsided on both sides of the Atlantic, and an agreement 
was reached through diplomatic channels by which Great 
Britain bound herself to arbitrate her dispute with Venezuela, 
thus terminating the incident. The conclusion of this contro- 



G ROVER CLEVELAND. 487 

versy was widely regarded as the first formal acquiescence by 
a European power in the Monroe doctrine, or, at any rate, in 
the application of that doctrine to warrant the exercise by the 
United States of virtual protection over the smaller states of 
the American continent. The Venezuelan arbitration treaty 
was signed at Washington by Sir Julian Pauncefote for Eng- 
land and Minister Andrade for Venezuela, on 2 Feb. Accord- 
ing to its provisions. President Cleveland designated as arbi- 
trator, on behalf of the United States, Justice Brewer, of the 
supreme court, while the Venezuelan government named Chief- 
Justice Fuller, and Great Britain appointed Lord Herschell and 
Justice Collins. 

Some minor events in the relations of the administration 
with foreign governments were as follows: In 1896 great sym- 
pathy was excited throughout the country by the Armenian 
massacres, and in congress many efforts were made to bring 
about the active interference of the United States in Turkish 
affairs, either on broad humanitarian grounds or because of 
specific cases of injuries suffered by American missionaries. It 
was believed also that the United States should have a war 
ship at Constantinople, and when Turkey refused to grant to 
this country the privilege of sending an armed ship through 
the Dardanelles, there were many rumors of an impending at- 
tempt at a forcible passage. The administration, however, 
continually denied any such intention, and although the "Ban- 
croft," a small war vessel, originally intended for a practice- 
ship, was sent to the Mediterranean, as was believed, that she 
might be in readiness to act as a guardship should she be re- 
quired to do so, no occasion arose for her use, the American 
squadron in Turkish waters, larger than for many years previ- 
ous, being such as to compel proper treatment of American 
citizens in Turkey. 

Owing to the repeated efforts, especially in the Pacific 
states, to restrict Chinese immigration, laws had been passed 
by congress, which were agreed to by China in a special treaty 
concluded at Washington, 17 March, 1894. By this treaty Chi- 
nese laborers were prohibited entering the country, and those 
already residing in the United States were required to be regis- 
tered. On 3 May, 1894, the time fixed by congress for this 
registration expired. There was great objection to this feature 
of the law, and large numbers of Chinese had failed to register. 



488 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



The law provided that all such should be deported, but finally 
the administration decided that as no means had been provided 
for this purpose no steps should be taken to carry out the de- 
portation clause. 

The seal-fishery question, which it had been hoped was set- 
tled by the Paris tribunal, continued to come in different forms 
before the administration. President Cleveland had urged in 
one of his messages that congress should sanction the payment 
of $425,000, agreed upon between Secretary Gresham and the 
British minister as compensation for Canadian vessels seized 
unlawfully by the U. S. authorities, but congress failed to ap- 
propriate the amount, and the claims remained unsettled. The 
customary yearly proclamations against poachmg were issued, 
but, owing to the inadequacy of the provisions for its preven- 
tion that had been adopted by the Paris tribunal, the seal herd 
continued to decrease. 

To pass from foreign to domestic affairs, the unsettled 
financial state of the country during a large part of Mr. Cleve- 
land's second term first demands notice. On 8 Aug., 1893, 
the president convened congress in special session because, as 
stated in his message of that date, of "the existence of an 
alarming and extraordinary business situation, involving the 
welfare and prosperity of all our people," and to the end that 
''through a wise and patriotic exercise of the legislative 
duties . . . present evils may be mitigated and dangers threat- 
ening the future may be averted." The country was in the 
midst of a financial crisis, largely due, it was believed, to past 
unsound legislation, under which the gold reserve had been 
diminishing, silver accumulating, and expenditures exceeding 
revenue. Confidence had become impaired and credit shaken. 
Business interests and the conservative sentiment of the coun- 
try demanded the repeal of the provisions of the act of 14 
July, 1890 (popularly known as the Sherman act), which re- 
quired the monthly purchase of four and one-half million ounces 
of silver and the issue of treasury notes in payment therefor. 
Such repeal the president strongly recommended, declaring 
that "our unfortunate financial plight is not the result of un- 
toward events, nor of conditions related to our natural re- 
sources; nor is it traceable to any of the afflictions which 
frequently check natural growth and prosperity," but is "prin- 
cipally chargeable to congressional legislation touching the 



GROVE R CLEVELAND. 485 

purchase and coinage of silver by the general government." 
Reviewing such legislation, he said: "The knowledge in busi- 
ness circles among our own people that our government can 
not make its fiat equivalent to intrinsic value, nor keep mferior 
money on a parity with superior money by its own independent 
efforts, has resulted in such a lack of confidence at home in the 
stability of currency values that capital refuses its aid to new 
enterprises, while millions are actually withdrawn from the 
channels of trade and commerce, to become idle and unproduc- 
tive in the hands of timid owners. Foreign investors, equally 
alert, not only decline to purchase American securities, but 
make haste to sacrifice those which they already have." He 
insisted further that " the people of the United States are en- 
titled to a sound and stable currency, and to money recognized 
as such on every exchange and in every market of the world. 
Their government has no right to injure them by financial ex- 
periments opposed to the policy and practice of other civilized 
states, nor is it justified in permitting an exaggerated and un- 
reasonable reliance on our national strength and ability to 
jeopardize the soundness of the people's money. This matter 
rises above the plane of party politics. It vitally concerns 
every business and calling, and enters every household in the 
land." 

The house promptly, and by a large majority, repealed the 
obnoxious provisions. In the senate a strong and determined 
minority resisted the repeal, and, taking advantage of the un- 
limited debate there permitted, delayed action for many weeks. 
In the heat of the contest a compromise was practically agreed 
upon in the senate, which was defeated only by the firm oppo- 
sition of the president. He insisted upon unconditional repeal, 
which was finally enacted i Nov., 1893. 

Soon after, one of the suggested measures of compromise, 
which provided among other things for the immediate coinage 
of so much of the silver bullion in the treasury as represented 
the seigniorage (declared to be $55,156,681), was embodied in 
a bill which passed both houses of congress. This bill the 
president vetoed as "ill-advised and dangerous." He said: 
"Sound finance does not commend a further infusion of silver 
into our currency at this time unaccompanied by further ade- 
quate provision for the mamtenance in our treasury of a safe 
gold reserve." 



490 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



At the first regular session of the fifty-third congress, 
opened 4 Dec, 1893, the question of tariff revision was at once 
considered. In his message of that date the president, after 
reviewing the work and needs of the various departments of 
government, dwelt with special emphasis on the necessity of 
immediately undertaking this important reform. "After a 
hard struggle," he said, " tariff reform is directly before us. 
Nothing so important claims our attention, and nothing so 
clearly presents itself as both an opportunity and a duty — an 
opportunity to deserve the gratitude of our fellow-citizens, and 
a duty imposed upon us by our oft-repeated professions and by 
the emphatic mandate of the people. After full discussion, 
our countrymen have spoken in favor of this reform, and they 
have confided the work of its accomplishment to the hands of 
those who are solemnly pledged to it. . . . 

" Manifestly, if we are to aid the people directly through 
tariff reform, one of its most obvious features should be a re- 
duction in present tariff charges upon the necessaries of life. 
The benefits of such a reduction would be palpable and sub- 
stantial, seen and felt by thousands who would be better fed 
and better clothed and better sheltered. . . . 

" Not less closely related to our people's prosperity and 
well-being is the removal of restrictions upon the importation 
of the raw materials necessary to our manufactures. The 
world should be open to our national ingenuity and enterprise. 
This can not be while federal legislation, through the imposi- 
tion of high tariff, forbids to American manufacturers as cheap 
materials as those used by their competitors." 

A tariff bill, substantially following the lines suggested by 
the president and providing among other things for free wool, 
coal, iron ore, and lumber, was framed by the committee on 
ways and means, and, with the addition of free sugar and an 
income tax, passed the house on i Feb., 1894. In the senate 
the bill was amended in many items, and generally in the direc- 
tion of higher duties. After five months of prolonged discus- 
sion the bill, as amended, passed the senate by a small majority, 
all the democrats voting for it except Senator Hill, of New 
York. It was then referred to a conference committee of both 
houses to adjust the differences between them. A long and 
determined contest was there waged, principally over the duties 
upon coal, iron ore, and sugar. It was understood that a 



GROVER CLEVELAND. 



491 



small group of democratic senators had, contrary to the ex- 
press wishes and pledges of their party and by threats of de- 
feating the bill, forced higher duties in important schedules. 
While the bill was pending before the conference committee 
the president, in a letter to Mr. Wilson, the chairman of the 
ways and means committee, which later \, as read to the house, 
strongly urged adherence to the position which the house had 
taken in the matter. 

The house, however, finally receded from its position in the 
belief that any other course would defeat or long delay any re- 
duction of the tariff, and that the business interests of the 
country demanded an end to the conflict. The bill, as amend- 
ed, passed both houses, and at midnight of 27 Aug., 1894, be- 
came a law without the signature of the president. In a 
published letter of the same date he gave his reasons for with- 
holding his approval. While he believed the bill was a vast 
improvement over existing conditions, and would certainly 
lighten many tariff burdens which rested heavily on the people, 
he said : " I take my place with the rank and file of the demo- 
cratic party who believe in tariff reform and well know what it 
is, who refuse to accept the results embodied in this bill as the 
close of the war, who are not blinded to the fact that the livery 
of democratic tariff reform has been stolen and worn in the 
service of republican protection, and who have marked the 
places where the deadly blight of treason has blasted the coun- 
cils of the brave in their hour of might. The trusts and com- 
binations — the communism of pelf — whose machinations have 
prevented us from reaching the success we deserve, should not 
be forgotten nor forgiven." 

The close of the year 1894 was marked by financial depres- 
sion, by a larger deficit than had been expected, and by a de- 
cline in the revenue. Although the Sherman act had been re- 
pealed, no progress had been made with the scheme presented 
by Secretary Carlisle for reducing the paper currency and pro- 
viding for an adequate reserve. The reserve was threatened 
twice, and the president was obliged to make use of the power 
given under the resumption acts, by issuing $50,000,000 worth 
of five-per-cent ten-year bonds for the purchase of gold. In 
his message to the last session of the 53d congress he stated 
that he should employ his borrowing power "whenever and as 
often as it becomes necessary to maintain a sufficient gold re- 



492 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



serve and in abundant time to save the credit of our country 
and make good the financial declarations of our govern- 
ment." 

In February, 1895, the gold reserve had fallen to $41,- 
000,000, and Mr. Cleveland asked congress for permission to 
issue three-per-cent bonds payable in gold. This being denied 
him, he issued four-per-cent thirty-year bonds redeemable in 
coin, to the amount of $62,000,000. In June, 1895, the su- 
preme court decided by a majority of one that the income tax 
that had been imposed by the Wilson bill was unconstitutional, 
and the treasury thus lost a source of revenue that it had been 
estimated would yield $30,000,000 yearly. In his message of 
December, 1895, the president recommended a general reform 
of the banking and currency laws, including the retirement and 
cancellation of the greenbacks and treasury coin notes by ex- 
change for low-interest U. S. bonds; but congress failed to act 
on this recommendation. Gold exports continued, and in 
January preparations were made for a new loan. An invita- 
tion was issued asking applications for $50 thirty-year four- 
per-cent bonds to the amount of $100,000,000 before 6 Feb. 
European bankers held back, a free-coinage bill having been 
meanwhile reported favorably in the senate, but Americans 
subscribed freely, and the treasury obtained $111,000,000 in 
this way. This success was contrasted by Mr. Cleveland's 
opponents with his policy in the loan of 1895, which was made 
by contract with a syndicate of bankers; but it was pointed out 
in favor of that policy that it was the only course possible in a 
sudden emergency, and that such an emergency did not exist 
in the year 1896. 

On 29 May the president vetoed a river and harbor bill 
that provided for the immediate expenditure of $17,000,000, 
and authorized contracts for $62,000,000 more, but it was 
passed over his veto. 

In July, 1894, serious labor troubles arose in Illinois and 
other states of the west, beginning with a strike of the em- 
ployees of the Pullman palace car company, and spreading 
over many of the railroads centring in Chicago. Travel was 
interrupted, the mails delayed, and interstate commerce ob- 
structed. So wide-spread became the trouble, involving con- 
stant acts of violence and lawlessness, and so grave was the 
crisis, that military force was necessary, especially in Chicago, 



G ROVER CLEVELAND. 



493 



to preserve the peace, enforce the laws, and protect property. 
The president, with commendable firmness and promptness, 
fully met the emergency. Acting under authority vested in 
him by law, he ordered a large force of U. S. troops to Chicago 
to remove obstructions to the mails and interstate commerce, 
and to enforce the laws of the United States and the process 
of the federal courts; and on 8 and 9 July issued proclama- 
tions commanding the dispersion of all unlawful assemblages 
within the disturbed states. The governor of Illinois objected 
to the presence of the troops without his sanction or request. 
In answer to his protest the president telegraphed : " Federal 
troops were sent to Chicago in strict accordance with the con- 
stitution and laws of the United States upon the demand of the 
post-office department that obstruction of the mails should be 
removed, and upon the representations of the judicial officers 
of the United States that process of the federal courts could 
not be executed through the ordinary means, and upon abun- 
dant proof that conspiracies existed against commerce between 
the states. To meet these conditions, which are clearly within 
the province of federal authority, the presence of federal troops 
in the city of Chicago was deemed not only proper, but neces- 
sary, and there has been no intention of thereby interfering 
with the plain duty of the local authorities to preserve the 
peace of the city." 

To a further protest and argument of the governor the 
president replied: "While I am still persuaded that 1 have 
transcended neither my authority nor duty in the emergency 
that confronts us, it seems to me that in this hour of danger 
and public distress discussion may well give way to active 
effort on the part of the authorities to restore obedience to the 
law and to protect life and property." 

The decisive action of the president restored order, ended 
the strike, and received the commendation of both houses of 
congress and of the people generally. The president then 
appointed a commission to investigate the causes of the strike. 
It is interesting to note in this connection that by special mes- 
sage to congress of 22 April, 1886, President Cleveland had 
strongly recommended legislation which should provide for the 
settlement by arbitration of controversies of this character. 

Early in May, 1896, Mr. Cleveland issued an order by which 
30,000 additional posts in the civil service were placed on the 



^Q4 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

list of those requiring a certificate from the civil-service com- 
missioners, thus raising the number to 80,000. When he first 
became president there were only 13,000 appointments out of 
130,000 for which any test of the kind was required. 

In Mr. Cleveland's last annual message, after declaring that 
the agreement between Great Britain and the United States re- 
garding the Venezuela boundary question had practically re- 
moved that question from the field of controversy, he added 
that " negotiations for a treaty of general arbitration for all 
differences between Great Britain and the United States are 
far advanced and promise to reach a successful consummation 
at an early date." On 11 Jan., 1897, a treaty between Great 
Britain and the United States for the establishment by the two 
countries of such an international tribunal of general arbitra- 
tion was signed by Secretary Olney and Sir Julian Pauncefote 
at Washington, and sent by President Cleveland to the senate. 
This treaty was hailed with great satisfaction by all friends 
of arbitration. The preamble stated that the articles of the 
treaty were agreed to and concluded because the two countries 
concerned are " desirous of consolidating the relations of amity 
which so happily exist between them, and of consecrating by 
treaty the principle of international arbitration." No reserva- 
tion was made regarding the subject-matter of disputes to be 
arbitrated. Matters involving pecuniary claims amounting to 
$500,000 or less were to be settled by three arbitrators, con- 
sisting of two jurists of repute and an umpire, the latter to be 
appointed by the king of Sweden in case the arbitrators should 
not agree upon one. All other claims, except those involving 
territory, were to go first before such a tribunal, but in case 
the decision should not be unanimous it was to be reviewed be- 
fore a similar tribunal of five. Boundary questions were to go 
to a special court of six members — three U. S. judges and three 
British judges. The treaty was to continue in force for five 
years, and thereafter until twelve months after either of the 
contracting parties should give notice to the other of a desire 
to terminate it. 

On 1 Feb. the foreign relations committee of the senate re- 
ported favorably on this treaty with amendments that were 
regarded by the friends of the treaty as making it practically 
of no effect. Even in this form the treaty, on 5 May, failed to 
receive the two-thirds majority necessary for confirmation, the 



GROVER CLEVELAND. ^qC 

vote being 43 to 26. It was generally believed that personal 
hostility to Mr. Cleveland had much to do with the rejection. 
There had been for some time a feeling in the senate that the 
president and his secretary of state had not deferred sufficient- 
ly to the rights of that body in matters of foreign policy. Mr. 
Olney's statement in the Cuban matter, noticed above, had 
much to do with strengthening this feeling, and although the 
secretary's position in this matter was generally sustained by 
constitutional lawyers it doubtless had its effect in still further 
estranging many senators from the administration. Another 
difference of opinion of the same kind occurred in the case of 
certain extradition treaties negotiated by Secretary Olney with 
the Argentine Republic and the Orange Free State. In these 
treaties, by the president's desire, as was understood, a clause 
was incorporated providing for the surrender of American citi- 
zens to the authorities of a foreign country provided such citi- 
zens have been guilty of crime within the jurisdiction of the 
country that demands their return. This was intended to pre- 
vent this country from becoming an asylum for European 
criminals, who had been granted naturalization papers here 
and who should attempt to make their naturalization protect 
them from the consequences of their past criminal acts. But 
this plan has never been adopted by any other country, and 
the attempt to cause the United States to initiate it was not in 
accordance with public opinion. On 28 Jan.. 1897, the senate 
ratified both treaties, but with amendments conferring discre- 
tionary power on the surrendering government in the matter 
of giving up its own citizens. 

As the time for the meeting of the national democratic con- 
vention of 1896 drew nigh it became apparent that the advo- 
cates of the free coinage of silver would have a majority of 
the delegates. On 16 June Mr. Cleveland, in a published let- 
ter, condemned the free-silver movement, and called upon its 
opponents to do all in their power to defeat it. The conven- 
tion was clearly opposed to Mr. Cleveland. Its platform was 
in effect a condemnation of his policy in the matters of the 
currency, the preservation of public order, civil-service re- 
form, and Cuban policy. It declared for the free coinage of 
silver, and nominated a pronounced free-silver advocate. In 
the canvass that followed Mr. Cleveland took part with the 
gold-standard wing of the party, which under the name of the 



496 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



national democrats held a separate convention and nominated 
Senator Palmer for the presidency. 

One of the president's last official acts was his appearance 
at the sesquicentennial celebration of Princeton university, 
where he delivered an address that was widely praised. Soon 
afterward it was announced that he had purchased a house in 
the town of Princeton, and after the inauguration of his suc- 
cessor, Major McKinley, he removed thither with his family. 
His son was born there 28 Oct., 1897. The picture on page 
479 represents Mr. Cleveland's summer home on the north 
shore of Buzzard's Bay, Mass. 

Mr. Cleveland is as distinguished for forcible speech as for 
forcible action. His many addresses, both while in and out of 
office, are marked by clearness of thought and directness of 
expression, which, with his courage and ability, have always 
appealed to the best sentiments of the people, and have formed 
and led a healthy public opinion. He is notable for being the 
first public man in the United States to be nominated for the 
presidency thrice in succession. Equally remarkable is the 
fact that he has received this recognition although often at 
variance with his own party. His final withdrawal from public 
office was marked, as has been already said, by a general es- 
trangement between him and many of those who had been 
once his followers, and despite this the popular feeling toward 

him throughout the country con- 
tinued to be one of respect and 
esteem. Several campaign lives of 
Mr. Cleveland appeared during his 
three presidential contests. See 
also "President Cleveland," by J. 
Lowry Whittle, in the " Public Men 
of the Day " series (1896). 

President Cleveland married, in 
the White House (see illustration, 
page 472), on 2 June, 1886, Frances 
FoLSOM, daughter of his deceased 
friend and partner, Oscar Folsom, 
of the Buffalo bar. Except the wife 
of Madison, Mrs. Cleveland is the youngest of the many mis- 
tresses of the White House, having been born in Buffalo, N. Y., 
in 1864. She is also the first wife of a president married in 




G ROVER CLEVELAND. 



A97 



the White House, and the first to give birth to a child there, 
their second daughter having been born in the executive man- 
sion in 1893. They now (1898) have a son and three daugh- 
ters. — His youngest sister, Rose Elizabeth, b. in Fayetteville, 
N. Y., in 1846, removed in 1853 to Holland Patent, N. Y., where 
her father was settled as pastor of the Presbyterian church, 
and where he died the same year. She was educated at 
Houghton seminary, became a teacher in that school, and 
later assumed charge of the collegiate institute in Lafayette, 
Ind. She taught for a time in a private school in Pennsyl- 
vania, and then prepared a course of historical lectures, which 
she delivered before the students of Houghton seminary and 
in other schools. When not employed in this manner, she 
devoted herself to her aged mother in the homestead at Hol- 
land Patent, N. Y., until her mother's death in 1882. On the 
inauguration of the president she became the mistress of the 
White House, and after her brother's marriage she for a time 
connected herself as part owner and instructor in an estab- 
lished institution in New York city. Miss Cleveland has pub- 
lished a volume of lectures and essays under the title " George 
Eliot's Poetry, and other Studies " (New York, 1885), and " The 
Long Run," a novel (1886). 



BENJAMIN HARRISON. 

Benjamin Harrison, twenty-third president of the United 
States, born in North Bend, Ohio, 20 Aug., 1833; died in In- 
dianapolis, Ind., 13 Mar., 1901. He was the third son of John 
Scott Harrison (who was a son of President Harrison). It 
has been stated that his lineage can be traced to Harrison 
the regicide. He came directly from the Virginia Harrisons, 
who were distinguished in the early history of that colony; 
his great-grandfather, Benjamin Harrison, was one of the 
seven Virginia delegates to the congress which made the 
Declaration of Independence.* The Harrisons owned large 
landed estates on the bank of the Ohio near the mouth of the 
Big Miami. Benjamin assisted in the work on his father's 
farm, which contained about four hundred acres. The prod- 
ucts of the farm were annually shipped in flat boats to New 
Orleans, and his father usually went with the cargo, the crew 
being composed of men from the neighborhood who were fa- 
miliar with the perils of transportation on the Mississippi river. 
His first studies were prosecuted in the log school-house, and 
at the age of fifteen he went to Farmers (now Belmont) Col- 
lege, at College Hill, a suburb of Cincinnati. After a two 
years' stay there he became a student at Miami University, 
Oxford, where an acquaintance formed at College Hill ripened 
into a permanent attachment for Miss Caroline L. Scott, who 
afterward became his wife. The young lady had faith in his 
star, and did not hesitate to ally her fortunes with his. They 
were married while he was yet a law student and before he 

* The descent of Benjamin Harrison from Pocahontas, daughter of Pow- 
hatan, is outlined in a recent work by Wyndham Robinson, entitled " Poca- 
hontas and her Descendants through her Marriage at Jamestown, Virginia, in 
April, 1614, with John Rolfe, Gentleman." It may also be mentioned that he 
is among the eight presidents who have been of Welsh descent — John Adams, 
Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, William 
Henry Harrison, James A. Garfield, and Benjamin Harrison. — Editor. 




•tyHEHan 




DAPPLETONSc C° 



BENJAMIN HARRISON. 499 

had attained his majority. He graduated fourth in his class 
in 1852, Milton Sayler taking first honors and David Swing 
standing second. As a boy he distinguished himself as an off- 
hand debater in the Union Literary Society. From the first 
he showed an aptitude for thinking on his legs, and a gift of 
utterance which enabled him to express himself in apt words. 
At a town meeting, where an abolitionist abused Webster and 
Clay for the part they took in the Compromise measures of 
1850, the citizens were amazed to see a slender, tow-headed 
boy of seventeen mount a bench and make a vigorous speech in 
vindication of the great statesmen. He studied law with Storer 
& Gwynne, of Cincinnati, and in 1853 married and was admit- 
ted to the bar. In 1854 he put up his sign as attorney at law 
in Indianapolis, where he has kept his residence ever since. 
It was not long before his ability became known. His first 
effort at the bar was in prosecuting a man charged with bur- 
glary. He received a few dollars by acting as crier for the 
United States Court, and was glad to take a five-dollar fee 
now and then for a case before a country justice, though one 
half of the fee was necessary to pay for the hire of a horse to 
take him to the place of trial. Whoever employed him could 
count on his doing his very best, whether the interests involved 
were small or great. Promptness and thoroughness are char- 
acteristics which have been manifest in his whole career, pro- 
fessional and political. In 1855 he formed a partnership with 
W^illiam Wallace, and when that gentleman was elected county 
clerk in 1861 he formed a partnership with W. P. Fishback, 
which was interrupted by his enlisting in the army in 1862, 
but the connection was resumed again in 1865, when the firm 
became Porter, Harrison & Fishback, and so continued until 
1870, when Mr. Fishback retired. Judge Hines taking his place. 
Gov. Porter retiring, W. H. H. Miller became a partner in the 
firm, and upon Judge Hines retiring, Mr. John B. Elam be- 
came a member of the firm of Harrison, Miller & Elam, which 
continued until it was dissolved by Gen. Harrison's election 
to the presidency in 1888. While not always the senior in 
years, he was the senior in fact in every firm of which he was 
a member; such is the ungrudging testimony of all those who 
have been his partners. 

Though breaking the chronological order of events some- 
what, it is as well to complete here the sketch of his profes- 
33 



500 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



sional career. He has been concerned in the most important 
litigation in Indiana for nearly thirty years. He was em- 
ployed in all sorts of cases, such as came to attorneys engaged 
in general practice before the era of professional specialists. 
The panorama of human life with all its disappointments and 
successes is unrolled before the busy lawyer who has such a 
practice. The exclusive devotion to special branches makes 
men strong m their lines; it narrows them also, and the lawyer 
whose work has a wider range acquires greater breadth of 
view, a happy versatility, and a flexibility of mind which 
enable him to pass from one subject to another without weari- 
ness and without distraction. Benjamin Harrison has amazed 
his associates in professional and official life by the ease and 
ability with which he despatches so much important business 
in a masterly style. For the exigencies of high station the 
discipline of his professional life was 
an excellent preparation. As a lawyer 
he was thorough in the preparation and 
study of "his cases, in the preliminary 
statement he was clear and exhaustive, 
putting court and jury in full posses- 
sion of his theory of the case ; as an 
examiner of witnesses he had no rival ; 
and as an advocate his performances 
were characterized by clearness, cogen- 
cy, and completeness which left nothing 
further to be said on his side of the 
case. It often happened that his col- 
leagues who had prepared to assist in the argument threw 
away their notes and rested the case upon his single speech. 
As a cross-examiner he was unsurpassed. No rascally witness 
escaped him. No trumped-up story or false alibi could pass 
muster under his searching scrutiny. In a case where Gov. 
Hendricks was defending a man in the Federal Court against 
a charge of conspiring to violate the election laws, the Gov- 
ernor injudiciously put his client in the witness box. He de- 
nied his participation in the crime in the most positive manner; 
but little by little under Harrison's cross-examination he was 
driven to admit fact after fact, the cumulative force of which 
drove him at last to a practical confession of his guilt. In the 
celebrated Clem murder case several alibis, fabricated for the 









^^^ifr-^*-^'/^*-^'*-»■'>■»»* 



BENJAMIN HARRISON. 5OI 

principal actor in the conspiracy, were pulverized by his cross- 
examination. It was not his plan to confuse or persecute a 
witness, but to quietly, persistently, and courteously press for 
a full disclosure of the facts. He never attempted to brow- 
beat a witness, never excited the sympathy of a jury for a 
witness by any show of unfairness. His skill as a nisi prius 
lawyer was surpassed by his power before the higher and 
appellate courts. He put himself on paper admirably, and his 
briefs are models of strength and conciseness. He was def- 
erential to the courts, courteous to his opponents, generous to 
his colleagues. He showed no fussy fear that he would be 
shouldered to the rear. It was not necessary. It soon became 
evident to his opponents and associates that he was the con- 
spicuous figure in the fight. Unlike many able attorneys, he 
cared more for success than for an exhibition of his own 
powers. Lawyers who had never met him were sometimes 
led to think that his abilities had been overrated ; no lawyer 
who ever encountered him in a forensic fight came out of it 
with such an opinion. His commanding abilities as a lawyer 
stood him in good stead in his political career, which began 
with the organization of the Republican party. He became 
conspicuous in Indiana politics m i860, when, as a candidate 
for the ofifice of reporter of the Supreme Court, he made a 
thorough canvass of the State. His first debate with Gov. 
Hendricks was in that year. By some mistake of the campaign 
committees he and Hendricks were announced to speak the 
same day in Rockville. Hendricks was then the Demo- 
cratic candidate for governor, and was in the zenith of his 
fame as stump speaker. He courteously invited Harrison 
to divide time with him and made the opening speech. The 
local Republican managers were amazed at the temerity of a 
stripling who dared to measure strength with the Goliath of 
the Indiana Democracy, and showed their distrust of his abil- 
ity by leaving the courthouse. Harrison, who had been sea- 
soned and warmed for the work by speaking every day for 
weeks, assumed the aggressive, and as his few political friends 
began to show their appreciation by applause, the audience 
increased until the courtroom was packed with enthusiastic 
Republicans, who crowded about the speaker when he closed 
and showered their congratulations upon him. Mr. Voorhees 
was present, and, feeling the force of the impression made by 



502 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Harrison, arose when the speech was finished and said he 
would answer the speech that night in the same place. 

Since i860 he has taken an active part in every political 
canvass in Indiana. In that year he was elected reporter of 
the Supreme Court, and his official work may be found in ten 
volumes of the Indiana reports. His official and professional 
labors were onerous, but the tasks were lightened by the 
thought that he was paying for the modest cottage home 
which he had bought on credit. Then came the war, and 
Gov. Morton's call upon him to raise a regiment of volunteers. 
He enlisted, and in a few weeks was commissioned colonel of 
the 70th Indiana infantry. He made arrangements to have 
the duties of his office of reporter performed in his absence, 
several of his professional brethren undertaking to do the 
work without cost to him, so that his home could be paid for. 
The Democrats put the name of a candidate for the office on 
their State ticket in 1862. The Republicans, supposing that 
Harrison would be allowed to serve out his term, made no 
nomination. No votes were cast except for the Democrat, 
and in a mandamus suit brought by him to compel the clerk 
to give him the manuscript opinions of the judges, the Supreme 
Court, composed of Democrats, decided that Harrison's en- 
listment vacated the office, and that the Democrat who was 
elected by default should fill it for the unexpired term. At 
the next election, in 1864, while Harrison was still in the field, 
he was re-elected by an overwhelming majority, and after the 
close of the war assumed the office and served out his full term. 

The following is a brief summary of his military record: 
Benjamin Harrison was mustered into service as colonel of 
the 70th regiment of Indiana infantry volunteers with the 
field and staff of that regiment at Indianapolis, Ind., to date 
from 7 Aug., 1862, to serve three years. The following re- 
marks appear opposite his name on the muster-in roll of the 
field and staff : " Mustered into service as 2d lieutenant, 14 
July, 1862; as captain, 22 July, 1862; and as colonel, 7 Aug., 
1862." He was in command of his regiment from date of 
muster-in to 20 Aug., 1863; of the 2d brigade, 3d division, 
reserve corps, to about 20 Sept., 1863; of his regiment to 9 
Jan., 1864; of the ist brigade, ist division, nth army corps, 
to 18 April, 1864; of his regiment to 29 June, 1864; and of 
the ist brigade, 3d division, 20th army corps, to 23 Sept., 1864, 



BENJAMIN HARRISON. 503 

when he was detailed for special duty in the State of Indiana. 
The exact date that he returned to duty in the field is not 
shown; but on 12 Nov., 1864, he was directed to report in 
person to the general commanding at Nashville, Tenn., and 
subsequently commanded the ist brigade, provisional divi- 
sion, army of the Cumberland, to 16 Jan., 1865, when, upon 
his own application, he was relieved and directed to re- 
join his proper command for duty in Gen. Sherman's army 
at Savannah, Ga. On his way via New York to rejoin his 
command at Savannah, he was stricken down with a severe 
fever and lay for several weeks at Narrowsburg, N. Y. When 
able to leave his bed he started for Savannah, but arrived too 
late to join Gen. Sherman, and was assigned to command the 
camp of convalescents and recruits at Blair's Landing, S. C., 
on the Pocotaligo river, and soon after joined Gen. Sherman's 
army at Raleigh. He resumed command of the ist brigade, 
3d division, 20th army corps, 21 April, 1865; was relieved 
therefrom 8 June, 1865, upon the discontinuance of the bri- 
gade by reason of the muster out of the troops composing it; 
and on the same date, 8 June, 1865, was mustered out and 
honorably discharged as colonel with the field and staff of his 
regiment, near Washington, D. C. He was brevetted brigadier- 
general of volunteers, 23 Jan., 1865, "for ability and manifest 
energy and gallantry in command of brigade." As a regi- 
mental commander he was in action at Russellville, Ky., 30 
Sept., 1862 ; in the Atlanta campaign, at Resaca, Ga., 14-15 
May, 1864; at Cassville, Ga., 24 May, 1864; at New Hope, 
Ga., 25 May, 1864; at Dallas, Ga., 27-28 May, 1864; and at 
Kenesaw Mountain, Ga., 10-28 June, 1864. As a brigade 
commander he participated in the operations at Kenesaw 
Mountain, Ga., 29 June to 3 July, 1864; in the battle of Peach 
Tree creek, Ga., 20 July, 1864; in the siege of Atlanta, Ga., 
21 July to 2 Sept., 1864; and in the battle of Nashville, Tenn., 
15-16 Dec, 1864; and was present at the surrender of Gen. 
Johnston's army at Durham's Station, N. C., 26 April, 1865. 

At the close of his term of office as reporter of the Supreme 
Court he resumed the law practice and soon had his hands full 
of work, being retained in almost every important case in the 
Federal and State courts at Indianapolis. In 1876 Godlove 
S. Orth, the Republican candidate for governor, withdrew 
from the canvass while Gen. Harrison was taking a vacation 



504 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



on the north shore of Lake Superior. Without consulting him, 
his name was put upon the ticket as candidate for governor, 
and when he arrived from the North an enthusiastic crowd 
met him at the station and escorted him to his home. The 
trading of horses while crossing the river did not work 
well, and though Gen. Harrison made a splendid canvass, 
running two thousand ahead of his ticket, the popularity of 
Gov. Hendricks, who was on the National ticket, pulled the 
whole Democratic State ticket through by a plurality of three 
thousand. The gallant fight made by Gen. Harrison in that 
losing battle imposed a debt of gratitude upon his party which 
has not been forgotten. In 1879 President Hayes appointed 
him a member of the Mississippi River Commission. In 1880 
he was chairman of the Indiana delegation in the convention 
which nominated James A. Garfield. Some of his friends 
presented his name for the nomination in that convention, but 
he insisted that it should be withdrawn. His canvass of Indi- 
ana and other States during the campaign of 1880 was brilliant 
and effective. President Garfield offered him a place in his 
cabinet, which he declined. He was chosen United States 
senator in 1881, and served until 1887. His course in the 
senate was such as to win the esteem and friendship of his 
Republican colleagues and to command the respect of his po- 
litical opponents. This was his first experience in a legislative 
body, but he soon took rank among the foremost debaters of 
the senate. Chairman of the Committee on Territories, he 
was persistent in his demand for the admission to statehood 
of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, and 
Idaho, and though not succeeding at the time, he had the 
pleasure afterward of putting his presidential signature to the 
laws making them all States of the Union. In his speeches in 
the senate he criticised Mr. Cleveland's vetoes of the pension 
bills, voted and spoke in favor of an increase of the navy, 
the reform of the civil service, a judicious tariff reform; he 
favored every measure of public policy which had received the 
approval of his party. He has always been a strong partisan, 
and has believed and acted in the belief that since the Repub- 
lican party was organized it has done nothing of which Re- 
publicans should be ashamed, or at least nothing to justify 
a change of allegiance from it to the Democratic party. From 
one point of view, such a course in a public man may be criti- 



EXECUTIVE MANSION. 

WASHINGTON 



'^^^^iU^ ^^, 









BENJAMIN HARRISON. 505 

cised. It may be doubted, however, if any Indiana Repub- 
lican who has been confronted with the type of Democrats 
which have dominated that party for the last thirty years is 
to be censured for standing by his own party. 

The Republican party leaders saw in 1888 that the only 
hope of winning against Cleveland was to put up a candidate 
who could carry some of the doubtful States. Early in the 
year the Republican leaders in Indiana and almost the entire 
Republican press of the State pronounced in favor of Harrison, 
and his name was presented by the solid delegation to the 
convention at Chicago. On the first ballot he received 83 
votes, standing fifth on the list, John Sherman standing first 
with 225. Seven more ballots were taken, during which 
Chauncey M. Depew withdrew and his supporters went to 
Harrison, giving him the nomination on the eighth ballot by a 
vote of 544. There was great rejoicing on the part of his 
friends in Indiana, and as soon as the result was known there 
began a series of demonstrations which are without parallel 
in the history of presidential campaigns. On the day of the 
nomination a large delegation came to Indianapolis from 
Hendricks county in a special train and proceeded at once to 
Gen. Harrison's residence and called him out for a speech, and 
from that day until the election delegations kept coming from 
different parts of Indiana, from Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, 
Kansas, Illinois, Iowa, and other States, all of which were re- 
ceived and welcomed by him in impromptu speeches which, by 
their appropriateness, variety, force, and elegance of style, won 
the approval of our best literary critics as well as of the pub- 
lic. In these ninety-four speeches he made no slip. He said 
nothing that needed apology or explanation from his friends. 
Verbatim reports of the addresses were printed from day to 
day in all the leading papers of the country, and he never in 
anything he said gave his political opponents ground for un- 
friendly criticism. It is an open secret that some of the mem- 
bers of the National Republican committee were terrified when 
they learned that the " Hoosier " candidate had commenced 
the campaign by these free-spoken, off-hand talks with his 
neighbors. They proposed that some one should go to In- 
dianapolis and put a stop to the business. A gentleman who 
knew Gen. Harrison's ability told them not to be alarmed, and 
at the end of a week the fearful gentlemen had changed their 



5o6 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



minds and said that if they would allow Gen. Harrison to go 
on in that way he would elect himself in spite of any blunder- 
ing of the committee or campaign managers. 

A few extracts from some of these speeches may give an 
idea of their quality. To the California delegation the day 
after the nomination he said : " I feel sure, too, my fellow- 
citizens, that we have joined now a contest of great principles, 
and that the armies which are to fight out this great contest 
before the American people will encamp upon the high plains 
of principle and not in the low swamps of personal defamation 
or detraction." To a number of veterans of the Union army : 
"We went not as partisans but patriots into the strife which 
involved the national life. . . . The army was great in its 

assembling. It came with an 
impulse that was majestic and 
terrible. It was as great in its 
muster out as in the brilliant 
work which it had done in the 
field. . . . When the war was 
over . , . every man had in some 
humble place a chair by some 
fireside where he was loved and 
toward which his heart went for- 
ward with a quick step." To 
the Tippecanoe club, composed of men who had voted for his 
grandfather in 1840: "I came among you with the heritage, I 
trust, of a good name, such as all of you enjoy. It is the only 
inheritance that has been transmitted in our family." Gen. Har- 
rison was not in the habit of boasting of his lineage, of which he 
had reason to be proud. If it was ever the subject of conver- 
sation in his presence he never introduced it. To a delegation 
of farmers : " The law throws the aegis of its protection over 
us all. It stands sentinel about your country homes; ... it 
comes into our more thickly populated community and speaks 
its mandate for individual security and public order. There 
is an open avenue through the ballot for the modification or 
repeal of laws which are unjust or oppressive. To the law we 
bow with reverence. It is the one king that commands our 
allegiance." To a delegation of railway employees : " Heroism 
has been found at the throttle and brake as well as upon the 
battlefield, and as well worthy of song and marble. The train- 







rV;8rif- #ifi(J«t»'WS'^ 



BENJAMIX HARRISON. 507 

man crushed between the platforms, who used his last breath 
not for prayer or messages of love, but to say to the panic- 
stricken who gathered around him, ' Put out the red light fur 
the other train,' inscribed his name very high upon the shaft 
where the names of the faithful and brave are written." To 
an Illinois delegation : " It was on the soil of Illinois that 
Lovejoy died, a martyr to free speech. . . . Another great 
epoch in the march of liberty found on the soil of Illinois the 
theatre of its most influential event. I refer to that high 
debate in the presence of your people, but before the world 
in which Douglas won the senatorship and Lincoln the presi- 
dency and immortal fame. . . . The wise work of our fathers 
in constituting this Government will stand all tests of internal 
dissension and revolution and all tests of external assault, if 
we can only preserve a pure, free ballot." To a delegation of 
coal-miners : " I do not care now to deal with statistics. One 
fact is enough for me. The tide of emigration from all 
European countries has been and is toward our shores. The 
gates of Castle Garden swing inward; they do not swing out- 
ward to any American laborer seeking a better country than 
this. . . . Here there are better conditions, wider and more 
hopeful prospects for workmen than in any other land. . . . 
The more work there is to do in this country the higher the 
wages that will be paid for the doing of it. . . . A policy which 
will transfer work from our mines and our factories to for- 
eign mines and foreign factories inevitably tends to a depres- 
sion of wages here. These are truths that do not require 
profound study." To an Indiana delegation : " I hope the 
time is coming, and has even now arrived, when the great 
sense of justice which possesses our people will teach men of 
all parties that party success is not to be promoted at the 
expense of an injustice to any of our citizens." As early as 
31 July, 1888, he said: "But we do not mean to be content 
with our own market ; we should seek to promote closer and 
more friendly commercial relations with the Central and South 
American states, . . . those friendly political and commercial 
relations which shall promote their interests equally with ours." 
Addressing a company of survivors of his own regiment, he 
said: "It is no time now to use an apothecary's scale to 
weigh the rewards of the men who saved the country." To 
a club of railroad employees: " The laboring men of this land 



5o8 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



may safely trust every just reform in which they are interested 
to public discussion and to the tests of reason ; they may 
surely hope upon these lines, which are open to them, to ac- 
complish, under our American institutions, all those right 
things they have conceived to be necessary to their highest 
success and well-being." Addressing a meeting on the day 
of Sheridan's funeral : " He was one of those great command- 
ers who, upon the field of battle, towered a very god of war. 
. . He rested and refreshed his command with the wine of 
victory, and found recuperation in the dispersion of the enemy 
that confronted him." To a delegation of farmers: "I con- 
gratulate you not so much upon the rich farms of your country 
as upon your virtuous and happy homes. The home is the 
best, as it is the first, school of citizenship." 

All these campaign speeches, with a description of the cir- 
cumstances of their delivery, are collected in a volume pub- 
lished by Lovell & Co., of New York. But more remarkable 
than these are the one hundred and forty addresses delivered 
during his trip to the Pacific coast and back — a journey of 
10,000 miles, which was accomplished in thirty-one days, from 
15 April to 15 May, 1890, without the variation of one minute 
from -the prearranged schedule for arriving and departing 
from the hundreds of stations on the way. These addresses 
were non-political, and breathe throughout a spirit of high 
patriotism and a call to the high responsibilities of citizenship. 
In a letter to an American friend who had sent him the volume 
containing these speeches, the late Lord Coleridge says: "The 
speeches give me a very high idea of Mr. Harrison. We know 
very little here of your politicians, and it is pleasant to be 
brought face to face with any one so manly and high-minded 
as Mr. Harrison shows himself in the book you sent me. The 
perpetual demand which American customs make upon anyone 
of the least position in the way of speech-making must be 
very trying. In a degree (not within 1,000 miles of the presi- 
dent) I found it so myself when I was in America. But a 
private foreigner may say what he likes; a president, of course, 
must watch his words." 

It was assumed that with Mr. Blaine in the cabinet Presi- 
dent Harrison would be a very inconspicuous and unimpor- 
tant person in the administration. It is one of the marked 
characteristics of the man that when he is assigned to a place 



BENJAMIN HARRISON. 509 

he assumes all its responsibilities. As a lawyer he never 
shouldered himself to the front, but when placed in the lead 
he was the leader. The simple fact is, he was not for a moment 
overshadowed by any member of his cabinet. He insisted 
upon knowing what was going on in each department and 
maintained an intelligent supervision of them all. Nor is 
it detracting from the just fame of Mr. Blaine to say thai 
by reason of that gentleman's failing health the work of the 
State Department was much more than usual the work of the 
president. Those who have known him long did not fail to 
see his hand in the discussion of the legal rights of aliens domi- 
ciled here, contained in the dignified note to the Italian gov- 
ernment concerning the New Orleans massacre. The state- 
ment of the basis of our liability for wrong inflicted upon the 
subjects of friendly nations when they are the result of derelic- 
tion of duty by the local authorities was masterly, and the dig- 
nified manner in which that government was informed that the 
United States would be just, but would not be forced to a 
hasty decision, was admirable. In the Chile affair, in which 
that government denied its responsibility for the assaults upon 
our sailors at Santiago and refused safe conduct to some of 
the members of the Balmaceda administration who had' taken 
refuge at the United States legation, President Harrison was 
earnest and persistent in his demands, and, as the correspond- 
ence shows, after waiting patiently for a response, and becom- 
ing weary at last of the vacillating conduct of the Chilian 
government, made a peremptory request, which was promptly 
and satisfactorily answered. It is due to the republic of Chile 
to say that during the whole of the controversy the rival 
parties in that country kept it in a state of constant revolu- 
tion. The evidence in the case showed that our sailors were 
outraged because they belonged to the U. S. navy, and that 
the authorities of Chile permitted, if they did not connive at 
it. In such a case it would have been pusillanimous on the 
part of the Government to have failed to demand reparation. 
The Bering sea controversy, now happily in settlement by 
arbitration, was full of difficulty when Mr. Blaine's sudden 
illness threw the burden of the matter for a time upon Presi- 
dent Harrison. Lord Salisbury was delaying, the season for 
pelagic sealing was coming on, no modus vivendi had been 
agreed upon. President Harrison took measures for inter- 



5 TO 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



cepting the Canadian sealers, and it was not long until the 
terms of the treaty were arranged. The statement of the " five 
points " submitted to the arbitrators by the treaty is a good 
specimen of President Harrison's thorough and comprehensive 
work. Eastern journals that were not friendly to President 
Harrison have generously united in endorsing the conduct of 
the State Department during his administration, and have 
especially commended it for being thoroughly patriotic and 
American. And it may be said from the time of his nomi- 
nation until he retired from the presidential ofifice he sustained 
himself with a dignity and ability commensurate with the 
responsibilities of his exalted station. His policy in regard 
to the tariff has been censured, but he simply maintained 
the views held by the majority of the Republican party, with 
which he has always been in sympathy. He is what may 
properly be called an out-and-out protectionist. His firm 
stand in favor of honest money gave confidence to the busi- 
ness interests of the country when they were imperilled by 
the wild schemes of the advocates of free-silver coinage. He 
was renominated for the presidency by the Republican na- 
tional convention at Minneapolis without serious opposition. 
He failed of re-election. Public opinion has been much divided 
as to the causes of this result. It was certainly not on ac- 
count of any failure upon the part of President Harrison to 
carry out the policy of his party, or to realize the expectation 
of his friends in the ability shown by him in performing the 
duties of his station. The fatal illness of Mrs. Harrison, and 
her death a few days before the election, cast a shadow over 
the closing months of his ofticial life. His administration as 
a whole was business-like in its management of our domestic 
affairs, dignified, firm, and patriotic in its foreign polic}', pro- 
moting the prosperity of our people at home and keeping 
peace with all nations. In his last message to congress, on 
6 Dec, 1892, after giving a summary of the operations of the 
different departments, he said : " This exhibit of the work of 
the executive departments is submitted to congress and to the 
public in the hope that there will be found in it a due sense of 
responsibility, and an earnest purpose to maintain the national 
honor and to promote the happiness and prosperity of all our 
people. And this brief exhibit of the growth and prosperity 
of the country will give us a level from which to note the 



BENJAMIN HARRISON. 5II 

increase or decadence that new legislative policies may bring 
to us. There is no reason why the national influence, power, 
and prosperity should not observe the same rates of increase 
that have characterized the past thirty years. We carry the 
great impulse and increase of these years into the future. 
There is no reason why, in many lines of production, we 
should not surpass all other nations, as we have already done 
in some. There are no near frontiers to our possible develop- 
ment. Retrogression would be a crime." 

Upon retiring from the presidency, Gen. Harrison was en- 
gaged by the late Senator Stanford, to deliver a course of 
lectures at the Leland Stanford, Jr., university, in California, 
on constitutional law. These were delivered during the early 
months of 1894. Foreigners who have studied our institutions 
have expressed regrets that in America no provision is made 
for the dignified retirement of our ex-presidents, and they have 
suggested that some office with a life tenure be bestowed upon 
them with a suitable provision for their support out of the pub- 
lic treasury. The temper of our people and the genius of our 
institutions are not in accord with any such desire. The great 
volunteer generals of the war came back to the ranks and took 
their places with their fellow-citizens in the walks of private life. 
So our great political leaders, from the senate and from the 
presidency, when their term of office is over, come back to their 
homes and ordinary pursuits without any impairment of their 
dignity or their self-respect. In his retirement from the labors 
of his official station Gen. Harrison can realize the truth of 
what he said in a speech on the day of his nomination in 1888: 
" Kings sometimes bestow decorations upon those whom they 
desire to honor, but that man is most highly decorated who 
has the affectionate regard of his neighbors and friends." 
This he has in full measure. Judged by the standards of a 
few unprincipled and disappointed politicians who expected to 
thrive on the use and abuse of public patronage. Gen. Harrison 
is a cold-blooded man. But it is possible that such men are 
not as well qualified to judge of the temperature of a man's 
blood as his friends and intimates who have seen him in all 
the vicissitudes of his daily life, ministering with sympathy 
and self-sacrifice to relatives and friends who, overtaken by 
some great calamity, have found his heart as tender as a child's. 
The country takes little note of the petulant criticisms of its 



512 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



public servants, but it will hold at their true worth the great 
and useful virtues of ability, wisdom, integrity, courage, and 
patriotism whenever they are exhibited by men in high offi- 
cial station. The picture on another page shows his home in 
Indianapolis. In April, 1896, the ex-president married Mrs. 
Mary Scott Lord Dimmock, and three years later he appeared 
as counsel in the Anglo- Venezuelan boundary arbitration 
commission, concluding his argument in Paris, 27 Sept., 1899. 
He is the author of "This Country of Ours" (New York, 
1897). His life has been written by Gen. Lewis Wallace 
(Philadelphia, 1888). A selection of Gen. Harrison's speeches, 
edited by Charles Hedges, appeared in 1888, and another col- 
lection was published four years later. 



His wife, Caroline Lavinia Scott, born in Oxford, Ohio, 
I Oct., 1832; died in Washington, D. C, 25 Oct., 1892, was 
the daughter of John W. Scott, who was a professor in Miami 

university at the time of her birth, 
and afterward became president of 
the seminary in Oxford. She was 
graduated at the seminary in 1852, 
the same year that Gen. Harrison 
took his degree at the university, 
and was married to him on 20 Oct., 
1853. She was a musician, and was 
also devoted to painting, besides 
which she was a diligent reader, and 
gave part of her time to literary 
clubs, of several of which she was 
a member. Mrs. Harrison was a 
manager of the orphan asylum in 
Indianapolis and a member of the Presbyterian church in that 
city, and until her removal to Washington taught a class in 
Sunday-school. They had two children. The son, Russell, 
was graduated at Lafayette in 1877 as a mining engineer, and 
served in Cuba in the war with Spain with the rank of major 
in the volunteers. The daughter, Mary, married James R. 
McKee, a prosperous merchant of Indianapolis, Ind., who has 
since removed to New York. 




C^ii^ryUr i?f «^Vt2,'?-7.-z-.^<>7o 





D,Appl6ton &:. Co, 



WILLIAM McKINLEY. 

William McKinley, twenty-fourth president of the United 
States, was born in Niles, Trumbull co., Ohio, 29 Jan., 1843. 
On his father's side his ancestry is Scotch-Irish ; his fore- 
fathers came to America one hundred and fifty years ago. 
Authentic records trace the McKinlays in Scotland back to 
1547, and it is claimed by students that James McKinlay, "the 
trooper," was one of William's ancestors. About 1743 one of 
the Scotch-Irish McKinleys settled in Chanceford township, 
York CO., Pa., where his son David, great-grandfather of the 
president, was born in May, 1755. After serving in the revo- 
lution David resided in Pennsylvania until 1814, when he went 
to Ohio, where he died in 1840, at the age of eighty-five. 
James McKinley, son of David, moved to Columbiana co., 
Ohio, in 1809, when William, father of the president, was not 
yet two years old. The grandmother of the president, Mary 
Rose, came from a Puritan family that fled from England to 
Holland and emigrated to Pennsylvania with William Penn. 
William McKinley, Sr., father of the president, born in Pine 
township, Mercer co., Pa., in 1807, married in 1829 Nancy 
Campbell Allison, of Columbiana co., Ohio, whose father, Abner 
Allison, was of English extraction, and her mother, Ann Camp- 
bell, of Scotch-German. Four of their nine children are now 
living, William being the seventh. Both the grandfather and 
the father of the president were iron manufacturers, or furnace 
men. His father was a devout Methodist, a stanch whig and 
republican, and an ardent advocate of a protective tariff. He 
died during William's first term as governor of Ohio, in 
November, 1892. The mother of the president died in De- 
cember, 1897, at the age of eighty-nine. 

William received his first education in the public schools of / 
Niles, but when he was nine years old the family removed to 



514 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Poland, Mahoning co., Ohio, where he was at once admitted 
into Union seminary and pursued his studies until he was 
seventeen. He excelled in mathematics and the languages, 
and was the best equipped of all the students in debate. In 
i860 he entered the junior class of Allegheny college, Mead- 
ville. Pa., where he would have been graduated in the follow- 
ing year but for the failure of his health, owing to which, as 
soon as he was able, he sought a change by engaging as a 

teacher in the pub- 
lic schools. He was 
fond of athletic 
sports, and was 
a good horseman. 
At the age of six- 
teen he became a 
member of the 
Methodist Episco- 
pal church, and was 
noted for his dili- 
gent study of the 
Bible. When the 
civil war broke 
out, in the spring of 1861, he was a clerk in the Poland post- 
office. Young McKinley volunteered, and, going with the re- 
cruits to Columbus, was there enlisted as a private in Company 
E, of the 23d Ohio volunteer infantry, 11 June, 1861. This 
regiment is one of the most famous of Ohio organizations, 
including an unusually large number of noted men, among 
them Gen. W. S. Rosecrans and President Hayes. He partici- 
pated in all the early engagements in West Virginia, the first 
being at Carnifex Ferry, 10 Sept., 1861, and in the winter's 
camp at Fayetteville he earned and received his first pro- 
motion, commissary sergeant, 15 April, 1862. "Young as 
McKinley was," said ex-President Hayes at Lakeside in 1891, 
" we soon found that in business and executive ability he was 
of rare capacity, of unusual and surpassing capacity, for a boy 
of his age. When battles were fought or a service to be per- 
formed in warlike things, he always took his place." At An- 
tietam Sergeant McKinley, when in charge of the commissary 
department of his brigade, filled two wagons with coffee and 
other supplies, and in the midst of the desperate fight hurried 




WILLIAM MCKINLEY. 



515 



them to his dispirited comrades, who took new courage after 
the refreshment. For this service he was promoted from ser- 
geant to Heutenant, his commission dating from 24 Sept., 1862. 

While at Camp Piatt he was promoted to ist Heutenant, 
7 Feb.. 1863, and under his leadership his company was first to 
scramble over the enemy's fortifications and silence their guns. 
Later, in the retreat that began on 19 June, near Lynchburg, 
and continued until 27 June, the 23d marched 180 miles, 
fighting nearly all the time, with scarcely any rest or food. 
Lieut. McKinley conducted himself with gallantry in every 
emergency, and at Winchester won additional honors. The 
13th West Virginia regiment failed to retire when the rest of 
Hayes's brigade fell back, and was in imminent danger of cap- 
ture. McKinley was directed to go and bring it away, if it 
had not already fallen, and did so safely, after riding through 
a heavy fire. " He was greeted by a cheer," says a witness of 
the incident, "for all of us felt and knew one of the most gal- 
lant acts of the war had been performed." During the retreat 
they came upon a battery of four guns which had been left in 
the way, an easy capture for the enemy. McKinley asked 
permission to bring it off, but his superior officers thought it 
impossible, owing to the exhausted condition of the men. 
" The 23d will do it," said McKinley, and, at his call for volun- 
teers, every man of his company stepped out, and the guns 
were hauled off to a place of safety. The next day, 25 July, 
1864, at the age of twenty-one, McKinley was promoted to 
the rank of captain. The brigade continued its fighting up 
and down the Shenandoah valley. At Berryville, 3 Sept., 1864, 
Capt. McKinley's horse was shot under him. 

After service on Gen. Ci'ook's staff and that of Gen. Han- 
cock, McKinley was assigned as acting assistant adjutant-gen- 
eral on the staff of Gen. Samuel S. Carroll, commanding the 
veteran reserve corps at Washington; where he remained 
through that exciting period which included the surrender of 
Lee to Grant at Appomattox and the assassination of Lincoln. 
Just a month before this tragedy, or on 14 March, 1865, he had 
received from the president a commission as major by brevet 
in the volunteer U. S. army, " for gallant and meritorious serv- 
ices at the battles of Opequan, Cedar Creek, and Fisher's Hill." 
At the close of the war he was urged to remain in the army, but, 
deferring to the judgment of his father, he was mustered out 
34 



5i6 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



with his regiment, 26 July, 1865, and returned to Poland. He 
had never been absent a day from his command on sick leave, 
had only one short furlough in his four years of service, never 
asked or sought promotion, and was present and active in 
every engagement in which his regiment participated. On his 
return to Poland with his old company, a complimentary din- 
ner was given them, and he was selected to respond to the 
welcoming address, which he did with great acceptability. 

He at once began the study of law under the preceptorship 
of Judge Charles E. Glidden and his partner, David M. Wilson, 
of Youngstown, Ohio, and after a year of drill completed his 
course at the law-school in Albany, N. Y. In March, 1867, he 
was admitted to the bar at Warren, Ohio. On. the advice of 
his elder sister, Anna, he settled in Canton, Ohio, where she 
was then and for many years after a teacher in the public 
schools. He was already an ardent republican, and did not 
forsake his party because he was now a resident of an opposi- 
tion county. On the contrary, in the autumn of 1867 he made 
his first political speeches in favor of negro suffrage, a most 
unpopular doctrine throughout the state. Nominations on 
the republican ticket in Stark county were considered empty 
honors; but when, in 1869, he was placed on the ticket for 
prosecuting attorney he made so energetic a canvass that he 
was elected. He discharged the duties of his trust with fidel- 
ity and fearlessness, but in 187 1 he failed of re-election by 45 
votes. He thereupon resumed his increasing private practice, 
but continued his interest in politics, and his services as a 
speaker were eagerly sought. In the gubernatorial campaign 
between Hayes and Allen, in 1875, at the height of the green- 
back craze, he made numerous effective speeches in favor of 
honest money and the resumption of specie payments. Stewart 
L. Woodford, of New York, spoke at Canton that autumn, and 
on his return to Columbus Mr. Woodford made it a point to 
see the state committee and urge them to put McKinley upon 
their list of speakers. They had not heard of him before, but 
they put him on the list, and he has never been off it since. 
The next year, 1876, McKinley was nominated for congress 
over several older competitors, on the first ballot, and was 
elected in October over Leslie L. Lanborn by 3,300 majority. 
During the progress of the canvass, while visiting the centen- 
nial exposition in Philadelphia, he was introduced by James G. 



WILLIAM Mckinley, 



517 



Blaine to a great audience which Blaine had been addressing 
at the Union league club, and scored so signal a success that 
he was at once in demand throughout the country. 

Entering congress on the day when his old colonel assumed 
the presidency, and in high favor with him, McKinley was not 
without influence even during his first term. On 15 April, 
1878, he made a speech in opposition to what was known as 
" the Wood tariff bill," from its author, Fernando Wood, of 
New York. His speech was published and widely circulated 
by the republican congressional committee, and otherwise at- 
tracted much attention. 

In 1877 Ohio went strongly democratic, and the legislature 
gerrymandered the state, so that McKinley found himself 
confronted by 2,580 adverse majority in a new district. His 
opponent was Gen. Aquila Wiley, who had lost a leg in the 
national army, and was competent and worthy. Not deterred, 
McKinley entered the canvass with great energy, and after a 
thorough discussion of the issues in every part of the district, 
was re-elected to the 46th congress by 1,234 majority. At the 
extra session, 18 April, 1879, he opposed the repeal of the 
federal election laws in a speech that was issued as a campaign 
document by the republican national committee of that and 
the following year. As chairman of the republican state con- 
vention of Ohio, of 1880, he made another address devoted 
principally to the same issue. Speaker Randall gave him a 
place on the judiciary committee, and in December, :88o, 
appointed him to succeed President Garfield as a member of 
the ways and means committee. The same congress made him 
one of the house committee of visitors to West Point military 
academy, and he was also chairman of the committee having 
in charge the Garfield memorial exercises in the house in 1881. 

The Ohio legislature of 1880 restored his old congressional 
district, and he was unanimously nominated to the 47th con- 
gress. His election was assured, but he made a vigorous can- 
vass, and was chosen over Leroy D. Thoman by 3,571 majority. 
He was chosen by the Chicago convention as the Ohio member 
of the republican national committee, and accompanied Gen. 
Garfield on his tour through New York, speaking also in Maine, 
Indiana, Illinois, and other states. 

The 47th congress was republican, and, acting on the rec- 
ommendation of President Arthur, it proceeded to revise the 



5l8 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

tariff. After much discussion it was agreed to constitute a 
commission who should prepare such bill or bills as were neces- 
sary and report at the next session. In the debate on this 
project McKinley delivered an interesting speech, 6 April, 1882, 
in which, while not giving his unqualified approval to the crea- 
tion of a commission, he insisted that a protective policy should 
never for an instant be abandoned or impaired. 

The elections of 1882 occurred while the tariff commission 
was still holding its sessions, and the republicans were every- 
where most disastrously defeated. The democracy carried Ohio, 
by 19,000, and elected 13 of the 21 congressmen. McKinley 
had been nominated, after a sharp contest, for a fourth term, 
and was elected in October by the narrow margin of eight 
votes over his democratic competitor, Jonathan H. Wallace. 
At the short session an exhaustive report by the tariff commis- 
sion was submitted, and from this the ways and means commit- 
tee framed and promptly introduced a bill reducing existing 
duties, on an average, about 20 per cent. McKinley supported 
this measure in an explanatory and argumentative speech of 
some length, 27 Jan., 1883, but it was evident from the start 
that it could not become a law, and the senate substitute was 
enacted instead. Although his seat in the 48th congress was 
contested, he continued to serve in the house until well toward 
the close of the long session. In this interval he delivered his 
speech on the Morrison tariff bill, 30 April, 1884, which was 
everywhere accepted as the strongest and most effective argu- 
ment made against it. At the conclusion of the general debate, 
6 May, 41 democrats, under the leadership of Mr. Randall, voted 
with the republicans to defeat the bill. 

At the Ohio republican state convention of that year, 1884, 
McKinley presided, and he was unanimously elected a delegate 
at large to the national convention. He was an avowed and 
well-known supporter of Mr. Blaine for the presidency, and 
did much to further his nomination. Several delegates gave 
him their votes in the balloting for the presidential nomination. 
In the campaign he was equally active. The democrats had 
carried the Ohio legislature in 1883, and he was again gerry- 
mandered into a district supposed to be strongly against him. 
He accepted a renomination, made a diligent canvass, and was 
again elected, defeating David R. Paige, then in congress, by 
2,000 majority. But his energies were by no means confined 



EXECUTIVE MANSION 

WASHINGTON 



/ 





%j4^ a^-pt^^'^^^ 







ii 



WILLIAM MCKINLE V. 



519 



to his own district. He accompanied Mr. Blaine on his cele- 
brated western tour, and afterward spoke in the states of West 
Virginia and Xew York. 

In the Ohio gubernatorial canvass of 1885 Major McKinley 
was equally active. His district had been restored in 1886, and 
he was elected by 2,550 majority over Wallace H. Phelps, the 
democratic candidate. In the state campaigns of 1881, 1883, 
and 1885, and again in 1887, he was on the stump in all parts 
of Ohio. In the 49th congress, 2 April, 1886, he made a nota- 
ble speech on arbitration as the best means of settling labor 
disputes. He spoke at this session on the payment of pensions 
and the surplus in the treasury, and both speeches merit atten- 
tion as forcible statements of the position of his party on those 
questions. 

Major McKinley delivered a memorial address on the pres- 
entation to congress of a statue of Garfield, 19 Jan., 1886. He 
also advocated the passage of the so-called dependent pension 
bill, 24 Feb., over the president's veto, as a "simple act of 
justice," and "the instinct of a decent humanity and our Chris- 
tian civilization." 

In accordance with Mr. Cleveland's third annual message, 
6 Dec, 1887, which attacked the protective tariff laws, a bill 
was prepared and introduced in the house by Mr. Mills, 
embodying the president's views and policy, and the two 
parties were arrayed in support or opposition. Then occurred 
one of the most remarkable debates, under the inspiration and 
encouragement of the presidential canvass already pending, in 
the history of congress. It may be classed as the opportunity 
of McKinley's congressional life, and never was such an oppor- 
tunity more splendidly improved. Absenting himself from 
congress a few days, he returned to Canton, 13 Dec, 1887, and 
delivered a masterly address before the Ohio state grange on 
"The American farm.er," in which he declared against alien 
landholding, and advised his hearers to remain true to their 
faith in protection. He also went to Boston and discussed 
before the Home market club, 9 Feb., 1888, the question of 
"free raw material," upon which the majority in the house 
counted so confidently to divide their republican opponents, 
with such breadth and force that the doctrine was abandoned 
in New England, where it was supposed to be strongest. 

On 29 Feb. he addressed the house on the bill to regulate 



520 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



the purchase of government bonds, not so much in opposition 
to the measure, as because he believed that the president and 
the secretary of the treasury had been " piling up a surplus " 
of $60,000,000 in the treasury, without retiring any of the 
bonds, " for the purpose of creating a condition of things in the 
country which would get up a scare and stampede against the 
protective system." 

On 2 April he presented to the house the views of the 
minority of the ways and means committee on the Mills tariff 
bill. On 18 May, the day the general debate was to close, 
McKinley delivered what was described at the time as "the 
most effective and eloquent tariff speech ever heard in con- 
gress." The scenes attending its delivery were full of dramatic 
interest. The speaker who immediately preceded him was 
Samuel J. Randall, who had insisted on being brought from 
what proved his deathbed to protest against the passage of 
the proposed law. He spoke slowly and with great difficulty, 
and his time expiring before his argument was concluded, 
McKinley yielded to Randall from his own time all that he 
needed to finish his speech. It was a graceful act, and the 
speech that followed fully justified the high expectations that 
the incident naturally aroused. In it he showed that no single 
interest or individual anywhere was suffering either from high 
taxes or high prices, but that all who tried to be were busy 
and thrifty in the general prosperity of the times. In a well- 
turned illustration, at the expense of his colleague, Mr. Morse, 
of Boston, he showed, by exhibiting to the house a suit of 
clothes purchased at the latter's store, that the claims of Mills 
as to the prices of woollens were absurd. His refutation of 
some current theories concerning " the world's markets" and 
the effect of protective laws upon trusts was widely applauded. 
He held that protection was from first to last a contention for 
labor. Both congress and the country heartily applauded this 
speech. The press of the country gave it unusual attention, 
republican committees scattered millions of copies of it, and it 
everywhere became a text-book of the campaign. 

McKinley was a delegate at large to the republican national 
■convention of this year, and took an active part in its proceed- 
ings, as chairman of the committee on resolutions. He was 
the choice of many delegates for president, and when it was 
definitely ascertained that Mr. Blaine would not accept the 



WILLIAM MCKINLEY. 



521 



nomination, a movement in his favor began th^t would doubt- 
less have been successful had he permitted it to be encouraged. 
When during the balloting it was evident that sentiment was 
rapidly centring upon him, McKinley rose and said: "I can 
not with honorable fidelity to John Sherman, who has trusted 
me in his cause and with his cause; I can not consistently with 
my own views of personal integrity, consent, or seem to con- 
sent, to permit my name to be used as a candidate before this 
convention. ... I do not request, I demand, that no delegate 
who would not cast reflection upon me shall cast a ballot for 
me." The effect on the convention was as he intended. His 
labors for Sherman were incessant and effective, but while he 
could not accomplish his friend's nomination, he did preserve 
his own integrity and increase the general respect and con- 
fidence of the people in himself. 

He was for the seventh time nominated and elected to con- 
gress in the following November, defeating George P. Ikert 
by 4,100 votes. At the organization of the 51st congress he 
was a candidate for speaker, but, although strongly supported, 
he was beaten on the third ballot in the republican caucus 
by Thomas B. Reed. He resumed his place on the ways and 
means committee, and on the death of Judge Kelley, soon 
afterward, became its chairman. Thus devolved upon him, at 
a most critical juncture, the leadership of the house, under cir- 
cumstances of peculiar dilTiculty, his party having only a nomi- 
nal majority, and it requiring always hearty concord and co- 
operation to pass any important measure. The minority had 
resolved upon a policy of obstruction and delay, but Major 
McKinley supported Speaker Reed with his usual effectiveness, 
and the speaker himself heartily thanked him for his great and 
timely assistance. On 24 April, 1890, he spoke in favor of sus- 
taining the civil-service law, to which there was decided oppo- 
sition. "The republican party," said he, "must take no step 
backward. The merit system is here, and it is here to stay." 

On 17 Dec, 1889, he introduced the first important tariff 
measure of the session — a bill " to simplify the laws in relation 
to the collection of the revenue." The bill passed the house, 
5 March, and the senate, as amended, 20 March, went to a 
conference committee, who agreed upon a report that was con- 
curred in, and was approved 10 June, 1890. It is known as the 
" customs administration bill," is similar in its provisions to a 



522 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



bill introduced in the 50th congress, as the outgrowth of a 
careful, non-partisan investigation by the senate committee on 
finance, and has proved a wise and salutary law. Meanwhile 
(16 April, 1890) he introduced the general tariff measure that 
has since borne his name, and that for four months had been 
under constant consideration by the ways and means com- 
mittee. His speech in support of the measure, 7 May, fully 
sustained his high reputation as an orator. Seldom, if ever, in 
the annals of congress, has such hearty applause been given 
to any leader as that which greeted him at the conclusion of 
this address. The bill was passed by the house on 21 May, 
but was debated for months in the senate, that body finally 
passing it on 11 Sept., with some changes, notably the reciprocity 
amendment, which McKinley had unavailingly supported before 
the house committee. The bill, having received the approval 
of the president, became a law 6 Oct., 1890. 

The passage of the bill was hardly effected before the gen- 
eral election occurred, and in this the republicans were, as 
anticipated, badly defeated. His own district had been gerry- 
mandered again, so that he had 3,000 majority to overcome. 
Never was a congressional campaign more fiercely fought, the 
contest attracting attention everywhere. His competitor was 
John G. Warwick, recently lieutenant-governor, a wealthy 
merchant and coal operator of his own county. McKinley 
ran largely ahead of his ticket, but was defeated by 300 votes. 
No republican had ever received nearly so many votes in the 
counties composing the district, his vote exceeding by 1,250 
that of Harrison in the previous presidential campaign. Im- 
mediately after the election a popular movement began in 
Ohio for his nomination for governor, and the state convention 
in June, 1891, made him its candidate by acclamation. Mean- 
while in congress he spoke and voted for the eight-hour law ; 
he advocated efficient antitrust and antioption laws; he sup- 
ported the direct-tax refunding law in an argument that 
abounds with pertinent information ; and he presented and 
advised the adoption of a resolution declaring that nothing in 
the new tariff law should be held to invalidate our treaty with 
Hawaii. On the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the 
birth of Judge Thurman, at Columbus, in November, 1890, Mr. 
Cleveland spoke upon " American citizenship," and " made 
cheapness the theme of his discourse, counting it one of the 



WILLIAM MCKINLE V. 



523 



highest aspirations of American life." Major McKinley, 
replying to this address at the Lincoln banquet in I'oledo, 12 
Feb., J891, to the contrary held that such a boon as "cheap 
coats " meant inevitably " cheap men." 

At Niles, on 22 Aug., he opened the Ohio campaign. In 
this speech, as in every other of the 134 made by him in that 
wonderful canvass, he declared his unalterable opposition both 
to free trade and free silver. The campaign was earnest and 
spirited ; both he and his opponent, Gov. Campbell, made a 
thorough canvass, and met once in joint debate at Ada, Hardin 
county, in September. McKinley won a decisive victory, 
polling the largest vote so far cast for governor in the history 
of Ohio. Campbell had been elected in 1889 by 11,000 plural- 
ity in a vote of 775,000; McKinley now defeated him by 21,- 
500 in a total of 795,000. His inaugural address, 11 Jan., 1892, 
was devoted exclusively to state topics, except in its reference 
to congressional redistricting, in which he advised that " par- 
tisanship should be avoided." 

Soon after his inauguration as governor the presidential 
campaign began, and when importuned by friends to allow the 
use of his name as a candidate, he promptly replied that he 
believed Gen. Harrison justly entitled to another term. He 
was again elected a delegate at large from Ohio to the national 
convention, and was by it selected permanent chairman. He 
asked his friends not to vote for him, but urged them to sup- 
port Harrison. Still, when the ballot was taken many persisted 
in voting for him, though his name had not been formally pre- 
sented, the Ohio delegation responding 44 to 2 for him. He at 
once challenged this vote, from the chair, and put himself on 
record for Harrison, who on the entire roll call received 535 
votes; Blaine, 182; McKinley, 182; Reed, 4 ; and Lincoln, i. 
Leaving the chair, he moved to make the nomination unani- 
mous, and it prevailed without objection. He was chairman 
of the committee to notify the president of his renomination, 
20 June, and from that time until the campaign closed was 
more busily engaged than perhaps any other national leader of 
the republican party. After the loss of the fight he gave up 
neither courage nor confidence. He had no apologies or ex- 
cuses to offer. In responding to the toast " The republican 
party," at the Lincoln banquet in Columbus, in 1893, he again 
manifested the same high spirit. 



524 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



In his first annual message, 3 Jan., 1893, Gov. McKinley 
called attention to the financial condition of the state, and 
enjoined economy in appropriations. His sympathy with 
laboring men is apparent in his recommendation of additional 
protection to steam and electric railroad employees, and his 
interest in the problems of municipal government by his ap- 
proval of what is called the " federal plan " of administration. 
At the republican convention in Ohio he was unanimously 
renominated for governor, and he was re-elected by an over- 
whelming majority, the greatest ever recorded, with a single 
exception during the war, for any candidate up to that time in 
the history of the state — his vote aggregating 433,000 and his 
plurality 80,995. His competitor was Lawrence T. Neal. The 
issues discussed were national, and McKinley's voice was again 
heard in every locality in the state in earnest condemnation of 
"those twin heresies, free trade and free silver." The country 
viewed this result as indicative of the next national election, 
and he was everywhere hailed as the most prominent repub- 
lican aspirant for president. In his second annual message 
Gov. McKinley recommended biennial sessions of the legisla- 
ture; suggested a revision of the tax laws by a commission 
created for the purpose ; and condemned any increase of local 
taxation and indebtedness. 

On 22 Feb., 1894, McKinley delivered an address on the 
life and public services of George Washington, under the 
auspices of the Union league club, Chicago, which gave much 
gratification to his friends and admirers. Beginning at Bangor, 
Me., 8 Sept., and continuing through the next two months, he 
was constantly on the platform. The Wilson-Gorman tariff 
law had just been enacted, and to this he devoted his chief 
attention. After returning to Ohio to open the state campaign 
at Findlay, Gov. McKinley set out for the west. Travelling 
in special trains, under the auspices of state committees, his 
meetings began at daybreak and continued until nightfall or 
later from his car, or from adjacent platforms. For over eight 
weeks he averaged seven speeches a day, ranging in length 
from ten minutes to an hour ; and in this time he travelled over 
16,000 miles and addressed fully 2,000,000 people. 

During the ensuing winter there was great distress in the 
mining districts of the Hocking valley. Gov. McKinley, by 
appeals to the generous people of the state, raised sufificient 



WILLIAM MCKINLEY. 



525 



funds and provisions to meet every case of actual privation, 
the bulk of the work being done under his personal direction 
at Columbus. Several serious outbreaks occurred during his 
administration, at one time requiring the presence of 3,000 of 
the national guard in the field. On three occasions prisoners 
were saved from mobs and safely incarcerated in the state 
prison. His declaration that " lynchings must not be tolerated 
in Ohio " was literally made good for the first time in any state 
administration. 

On the expiration of his term as governor he returned to 
his old home at Canton. Already throughout the country had 
begun a movement in his favor that proved almost irresistible 
in every popular 
convention. State 
after state and dis- 
trict after district 
declared for him, un- 
til, when at length 
the national con- 
vention assembled, 
he was the choice 
of more than two 
thirds of the dele- 
gates for president. 
In the republican 
national conven- 
tion held in St. Louis in June, 1896, he was nominated on the 
first ballot, receiving 661 >^ out of 922 votes, and in the ensuing 
election he received a popular vote of 7,104,779, a plurality 
of 601,854 over his principal opponent, William J. Bryan. In 
the electoral college McKinley received 271 votes, against 176 
for Bryan. The prominent issues in the canvass were the 
questions of free coinage of silver and restoration of the pro- 
tective tariff system. Early in the contest he announced his 
determination not to engage in the speaking campaign. Real- 
izing that they could not induce him to set out on what he 
thought an undignified vote-seeking tour of the country, the 
people immediately began to flock by the thousand to Can- 
ton, and here from his doorstep he welcomed and spoke to 
them. In this manner more than 300 speeches were made 
from 19 June to 2 Nov., 1896, to more than 750,000 strangers 







526 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

from all parts of the country. Nothing like it was ever before 
known in the United States. 

Besides the pilgrimages to Canton already mentioned, the 
canvass was marked by the fact that Major McKinley's chief 
opponent, Mr. Bryan, was the nominee of both the democratic 
and the populist parties, and by the widespread revolt in the 
democratic party caused by this alliance. Within ten days 
after the adoption of the democratic platform more than loo 
daily papers that had been accustomed to support the nominees 
of the democratic party announced their opposition to both 
ticket and platform, and Major McKinley was vigorously sup- 
ported by many who disagreed totally with him on the tariff 
question. The campaign was in some respects more thor- 
oughly one of education than any that had been known, and 
its closing weeks were filled with activity and excitement, 
being especially marked by the display of the national flag. 
Chairman Hanna, of the republican national committee, recom- 
mended that on the Saturday preceding election day the flag 
should be displayed by all friends of sound finance and good 
government, and the democratic committee, unwilling to seem 
less patriotic, issued a similar recommendation. Thus a special 
" flag day " was generally observed, and political parades of 
unusual size added to the excitement. The result of the con- 
test was breathlessly awaited and received with unusual dem- 
onstrations of joy. 

On 4 March, 1897, Major McKinley took the oath of oflfice 
at Washington in the presence of an unusually large number 
of people and with great military and civic display. Immedi- 
ately afterward he sent to the senate the names of the follow- 
ing persons to constitute his cabinet, and they were promptly 
confirmed by that body : Secretary of state, John Sherman, of 
Ohio; secretary of the treasury, Lyman J. Gage, of Illinois; 
secretary of war, Gen. Russell A. Alger, of Michigan ; attorney- 
general, Joseph McKenna, of California ; postmaster-general, 
James A. Gary, of Maryland; secretary of the navy, John D. 
Long, of Massachusetts; secretary of the interior, Cornelius 
N. Bliss, of New York ; secretary of agriculture, James Wilson, 
of Iowa. Mr. Sherman was subsequently succeeded by Will- 
iam R. Day, of Ohio, and John Hay, of the District of Colum- 
bia ; Elihu Root, of New York, was appointed secretary of 
war, to succeed Gen. Alger; John W. Griggs, of New Jersey, 



WILLIAM Mckinley. 



527 



became the successor of Mr. McKenna in the office of attorney- 
general ; Charles Emory Smith, of Pennsylvania, followed Mr. 
Gary as postmaster-general ; Ethan Allen Hitchcock, of Mis- 
souri, was appointed to take the place of Mr. Bliss. 

On 6 March the president issued a proclamation calling an 
extra session of congress for 15 March. On that date both 
branches met and listened to a special presidential message on 
the subject of the tariff. The result was the drafting of the 
bill called "The Dingley bill," after Chairman Nelson Dingley 
of the ways and means committee, and in the course of the 
summer this passed both branches of congress, and by the sig- 
nature of the president became a law. 

It was expected that the election of President McKinley 
would put an end to the hard times that had prevailed for 
many years in the country, which, as was believed, were due 
to the tariff policy of the Democratic party and to apprehen- 
sion regarding the possible adoption of free coinage of silver. 
After the passage of the Dingley tariff bill there was a decided 
revival of prosperity. Many mills that had been closed re- 
sumed work, and there were other indications of returning 
confidence in the business world. On 17 May the president 
sent to congress a special message, asking for an appropria- 
tion for the aid of suffering Americans in Cuba, and in accord- 
ance therewith the sum of $50,000 was appropriated for that 
humane purpose. 

The policy of the new administration toward Spain on the 
Cuban question had been a matter of much speculation, and 
there were those who expected that it would be aggressive. 
But it soon became evident that it was to be marked by calm- 
ness and moderation. The president retained in office Consul- 
General Fitzhugh Lee, who had been appointed to his post by 
President Cleveland, although he sent a commissioner to Cuba 
to report to him on special cases; and the policy of the gov- 
ernment in relation to the suppression of filibustering remained 
unchanged. Gen. Stewart L. Woodford, the new minister to 
Spain, was instructed to deliver to the Spanish government a 
message in which the United States expressed its desire that 
an end should be put to the disastrous conflict in Cuba, and 
tendered its good offices toward the accomplishment of such a 
result. To this message the Spanish government returned a 
conciliatory reply, to the effect that it had ordered adminis- 



528 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



trative reforms to be carried out on the island, and expected 
soon to put an end to the unfortunate war, at the same time 
begging the United States to renew its efforts for the suppres- 
sion of filibustering. 

As was generally expected, the opening of the adminis- 
tration was marked by a fresh agitation of the question of 
Hawaiian annexation. A new treaty of annexation was nego- 
tiated and sent by the president to the senate, but action upon 
it was postponed. Meanwhile the Japanese government lodged 
a remonstrance against any such action on the part of the 
United States as might be deemed to prejudice the permanent 
rights alleged in favor of the Japanese under the terms of the 
treaty between Japan and the republic of Hawaii or adversely 
affect the settlement of the diplomatic dispute then pending in 
regard to the charged violation by Hawaii of the provisions 
of that treaty. The Japanese minister having disclaimed any 
ulterior unfriendly purpose of Japan, either in respect to the 
dispute or to the proposed annexation, the good offices of the 
United States were successfully employed with the Hawaiian 
republic to compose the controversy by the payment of a 
money indemnity to Japan, which amicably closed the incident 
before the final annexation of the islands to the United States. 
This was effected on 12 Aug., 1898, by the act of the Hawaiian 
president in yielding up to the representative of the govern- 
ment of the United States the sovereignty and property of the 
Hawaiian islands, in accordance with the terms of a joint reso- 
lution of congress, approved 7 July, 1898, whereby the purpose 
of the annexation treaty was accomplished by statutory ac- 
ceptance of the offered cession and incorporation of the ceded 
territory into the Union. 

A prominent incident in foreign affairs was a despatch sent 
by Secretary Sherman to Ambassador Hay regarding the 
Bering sea seal question, which was criticised because of the 
recital of the facts of the preceding award of the Paris Bering 
sea commission and the discussion which followed in order to 
show that Great Britain stood committed to a revision of the 
Paris rules for the regulation of seal-catching. On 15 July it 
was announced that Great Britain had finally consented to 
take part, with the United States, Russia, and Japan, in a seal- 
ing conference in Washington in the autumn of 1897 ; but later 
Lord Salisbury declared that he had been misunderstood, and 



WILLIAM Mckinley. 



529 



the conference convened in November without British dele- 
gates, although Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the Canadian premier, was 
present unofificially. The passing misunderstanding was speed- 
ily assuaged by the course of the administration in sending a 
special ambassador to Great Britain on the occasion of Queen 
Victoria's diamond jubilee. For this purpose the president 
selected Whitelaw Reid. 

In the summer following the president's inauguration the 
reports of great gold discoveries on the Klondike river in Brit- 
ish territory near the Alaskan boundary caused much excite- 
ment, recalling especially on the Pacific coast the days of the 
early California gold fever. So many expeditions set off almost 
at once for the north that the administration found it necessary 
to warn persons of the danger of visiting the arctic regions 
except at the proper season and with careful preparation ; and 
to preserve order in Alaskan territory near the scene of the 
discoveries the president at once established a military post on 
the upper Yukon river. On 7 April, in response to a message 
from the president asking relief for the sufferers by flood in 
the Mississippi valley, both houses of congress voted to appro- 
priate the sum of $200,000 for this purpose. Much favorable 
comment was caused at the beginning of the administration by 
President McKinley's evident desire to make himself accessi- 
ble to the public. On 27 April, accompanied by his cabinet, 
he attended the ceremonies connected with the dedication of 
the Grant monument in Riverside park, New York. Immedi- 
ately afterward he was present at the dedication of the Wash- 
ington monument in Philadelphia. 

President Cleveland, in his last annual message, had stated 
plainly the position of the United States on the Cuban ques- 
tion, saying that the suppression of the insurrection was essen- 
tially a matter for Spain, that this country would not fail to 
make every effort to prevent filibustering expeditions and 
unlawful aid of any kind for the rebels, but adding the warning 
note that there might come a time when intervention would 
be demanded in the name of humanity, and that it behooved 
Spain to end the struggle before this should become necessary. 
This was hardly a statement of party policy, but rather the 
expression of the sentiment of the whole country, and after 
the close of the first year of the new administration it was 
seen that its policy had been much along these lines. In his 



530 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



note of 23 Sept., 1897, Gen. Woodford had assured the Spanish 
minister of foreign affairs, the Duke of Tetuan, that all the 
United States asked was that some lasting settlement might be 
found which Spain could accept with self-respect, and to this 
end the United States offered its kindly offices, hoping that dur- 
ing the coming month Spain might be able to formulate some 
proposal under which this tender of good offices might become 
effective, or else that she might give satisfactory assurances 
that the insurrection would be promptly and finally put down. 
A change in ministry took place in Spain, and the liberals 
succeeded to power. The new foreign minister, Senor Gullon, 
replied to the American note on 23 Oct., suggesting more strin- 
gent application of the neutrality laws on the part of the 
United States, and asserting that conditions in the island 
would change for the better when the new autonomous institu- 
tions could go into effect. This measure of self-government 
was proclaimed by Spain on 23 Nov., 1897. The insurgents 
rejected it in advance ; the Spanish Cubans who upheld Wey- 
ler's policy were equally vigorous in denouncing it; the 
remainder of the population was inclined to accept it, as it was 
in lieu of anything better, although it fell far short of what 
they had been led to hope for. It stipulated, among other 
things, that no law might be enacted by the new legislature 
without the approval of the governor-general; Spain was to 
fix the amount to be paid by Cuba for the maintenance of the 
rights of the crown, nor could the Cuban chamber discuss the 
estimates for the colonial budget until this sum had been voted 
first; furthermore, perpetual preferential duties in favor of 
Spanish trade and manufactures were provided for. The form- 
al inauguration of the system took place in the beginning of 
January, 1898, but from the first it was evident that there were 
irreconcilable differences between the members of the ministry 
as well as between their followers, although there was mani- 
fested a certain well-wishing toward the new measure on the 
part of the insurgent party, many of them returning from the 
United States or coming from the field of hostilities to submit 
themselves under Marshal Blanco's proclamation of amnesty; 
yet early in January, 1898, the Spanish party broke out in such 
serious demonstrations and rioting against the autonomists 
and the Americans in Cuba that Consul-General Lee was in- 
duced to recommend the sending of an American man-of-war 



WILLIAM MCKINLEY. 53 I 

to Havana, as much for the moral effect of its presence as for 
the protection of American property there in the imminent 
and unfortunate contingency of disturbance. 

The tone of the press in the United States had been grow- 
ing more serious. The failure of the autonomous constitution 
was evident, the military situation was growing worse, the loss 
of life on the part of the helpless non-combatants caused by 
the reconcentration policy of Weyler was daily growing more 
appalling; it was clear that the whole situation was nearing a 
crisis. Senor Canalejas, the editor of a Madrid paper, made a 
journey to Cuba at this time to see the actual position with 
his own eyes. On his way he stopped in the United States, 
called on his friend Dupuy de Lome, the Spanish minister at 
Washington, and then went on to Havana. Soon after the 
departure of Canalejas, de Lome wrote him a private letter, in 
which he criticised severely the policy of the president in regard 
to the Cuban question, and characterized him as a vacillating 
and time-serving politician. 

The letter was surreptitiously secured, and published widely 
in the press on 8 Feb. ; later the original letter was communi- 
cated to the department of state. The following day, the 9th, 
Senor de Lome admitted the genuineness of the letter in a per- 
sonal conference with Assistant Secretary Day, stating that he 
recognized the impossibility of continuing to hold official rela- 
tions with this government after the unfortunate disclosures, 
and adding that he had on the evening of the 8th, and again 
on the morning of the 9th, telegraphed to his government 
asking to be relieved of his mission. Immediately after this 
conference a telegraphic instruction was sent to Gen. Wood- 
ford to inform the government of Spain that the publication 
in question had ended the Spanish minister's usefulness, and 
expressing the president's expectation that he would be imme- 
diately recalled. Before Gen. Woodford could present this 
instruction, however, the cabinet had accepted the minister's 
resignation, putting the legation in charge of the secretary. 
Three days later Gen. Woodford telegraphed to the depart- 
ment a communication from the minister of state expressing 
the sincere regret of his government and entire disauthoriza- 
tion of the act of its representative. On 17 Feb. Senor Polo 
y Bernabe was appointed to succeed Senor Dupuy de Lome 
as the Spanish minister to the United States. 
35 



532 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



The excitement caused in the United States by this inci- 
dent was still fresh when it was quickened into deeper and 
graver feeling by the destruction of the U. S. battle-ship 
" Maine " in the harbor of Havana. After the riots in January, 
1898, Consul-General Lee had, as already stated, asked for an 
American man-of-war to protect the interests of this country. 
The Spanish authorities were advised that the government 
intended to resume friendly naval visits to Cuban ports; they 
replied, acknowledging the courtesy, and announcing their 
intention of sending in return Spanish vessels to the principal 
ports of the United States. The " Maine " reached Havana 
on 25 Jan., and was anchored to a buoy assigned by the 
authorities of the harbor. She lay there for three weeks. 
Her officers received the usual formal courtesies from the 
Spanish authorities; Consul-General Lee tendered them a din- 
ner. The sailors of the " Maine " were not given shore liberty 
owing to the ill-disguised aversion shown to the few officers 
who went ashore. The treatment of officers and crew by the 
Spanish authorities was perfectly proper outwardly, although 
no effusive cordiality was shown them. 

At forty minutes past nine o'clock on the evening of 15 
Feb., while the greater part of the crew was asleep, a double 
explosion occurred forward, rending the ship in two and caus- 
ing her to sink instantly. Out of a complement of 355 officers 
and men, 2 officers and 258 men were drowned or killed and 
58 were taken out wounded. Capt. Sigsbee telegraphed a 
report of the occurrence to Washington, and asked that public 
opinion be suspended until further details were known. Mar- 
shal Blanco informed Madrid that the explosion was due to an 
accident caused by the bursting of a dynamo engine, or com- 
bustion in the coal-bunkers. The Queen Regent expressed 
her sympathy to Gen. Woodford, and the civil authorities of 
Havana sent messages of condolence, but no official expres- 
sion of regret was then made by the Spanish government. 
When the naval court of inquiry reached Havana the local 
naval authorities offered to act with them in investigating the 
explosion, but the offer was declined. Thereupon Spain made 
an independent investigation. The conclusions of the Ameri- 
can court of inquiry were that the explosion was not due to 
the officers or crew, but that it was caused by a submarine 
mine underneath the port side of the ship. The court found 



WILLIAM Mckinley. 



533 



no evidence fixing the responsibility upon any person or per- 
sons. It was not until several weeks later, when the findings 
of the American court had been announced, and the heat of 
popular sentiment made war inevitable, that the Spanish gov- 
ernment protested to Gen. Woodford against our ex parte inves- 
tigation, alleging that a verdict so rendered was unfriendly, 
and asked that a joint investigation or else a neutral exam- 
ination by expert arbitrators should be made to determine 
whether the explosion was due to internal or external causes. 
This proposal was declined by President McKinley. The 
investigation conducted independently by the Spanish gov- 
ernment found that the explosion on the " Maine " was acci- 
dental and internal. 

War was now only a question of time. On 7 March two 
new regiments of artillery were authorized by congress, and on 
9 March $50,000,000 f.or national defence, to be expended at 
his discretion, was placed at the disposal of the president. 
This spectacle was remarkable, almost unique, was hailed with 
enthusiasm throughout the country and commanded wide- 
spread attention and admiration abroad. The speeches of 
Senator Proctor and others who had visited Cuba carried great 
weight. The president asked for a bill providing a contingent 
increase of the army to 100,000 men, which was passed at once. 
Spain on her part put forth every effort to re-enforce the army 
in Cuba and to strengthen the navy. On 23 March, after the 
president had received the report of the naval court of inquiry. 
Gen. Woodford presented a formal note to the Spanish minis- 
ter warning him that unless an agreement assuring permanent, 
immediate, and honorable peace in Cuba was reached within 
a few days the president would feel constrained to submit the 
whole question to Congress. Various other notes were passed 
in the next few days, but they were regarded by the president 
as dilatory and entirely unsatisfactory. 

On 7 April the ambassadors or envoys of Great Britain, 
France, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Russia called on the 
president and addressed to him a joint note expressing the 
hope that humanity and moderation might mark the course of 
the United States government and people, and that further 
negotiations would lead to an agreement which, while assuring 
the maintenance of peace, would afford all necessary guaran- 
tees for the re-establishment of order in Cuba. The president. 



534 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



in response, said that he shared the hope the envoys had 
expressed that peace might be preserved in a manner to ter- 
minate the chronic condition of disturbance in Cuba so injurious 
and menacing to our interests and tranquillity as well as shock- 
ing to our sentiments of humanity, and while appreciating the 
humanitarian and disinterested character of the communication 
they had made on behalf of the powers, stated the confidence 
of this government for its part, that equal appreciation would 
be shown for its own earnest and unselfish endeavors to fulfil 
a duty to humanity by ending a situation the indefinite prolon- 
gation of which had become insufferable. 

The Queen Regent directed that Gen. Blanco should be 
authorized to grant a suspension of hostilities, the form and 
duration being left to his discretion, to enable the insurgents 
to submit and confer as to the measure of autonomy to be 
granted to them. This was a very different thing from assent 
to the president's demand for an armistice from April to Oc- 
tober, with an assurance that negotiations for independence 
should be opened with the insurgents. No real armistice being 
offered them, there was nothing for the Cubans to decline. 
It was this evasive outcome of the labors of the president for 
the past two months that caused him to abandon all hope of 
an adequate settlement by negotiation and to send in his mes- 
sage of II April, which reviewed at length the negotiations and 
ended by leaving the issue with congress. 

On 13 April a resolution was passed by the house author- 
izing the president to intervene to pacify Cuba. On 16 April 
the senate amended the house resolution by striking out all 
except the number, and substituting a resolution recognizing 
Cuba's independence. April 19 these two resolutions were 
combined in a joint resolution which was adopted by both 
houses, after a bitter struggle. This resolution was approved 
by the executive on the next day. Spain assumed to treat the 
joint resolution of 20 April as a declaration of war, and sent 
Gen. Woodford his passports about seven o'clock on the morn- 
ing of the 2 1 St, before he could communicate the demands of 
the resolution. In the United States it was assumed that by 
dismissing Gen. Woodford Spain initiated actual war, where- 
fore congress, by an act approved 25 April, declared " that war 
exists and that war has existed since the 21st day of April, a.d. 
1898, including said day, between the United States of Amer- 



WILLIAM MCKINLEY. 



535 



ica and the kingdom of Spain." In like manner the Spanish 
decree of 23 April simply recites in article one " the state of 
war existing between Spain and the United States," without 
assigning a date for its beginning. The president's proclama- 
tion of 26 April coincided with the Spanish decree of 23 April 
in adopting for the war the maritime rules of the declaration 
of Paris. 

By the end of the month the troops called for under the 
act of 23 April, authorizing the president to call for 125,000 
volunteers, had begun to concentrate at Tampa, Fla. On 30 
April congress authorized a bond issue of $200,000,000, and a 
circular was issued the same day inviting subscriptions. The 
total of subscriptions of $500 and less was $100,444,560, and 
the total in greater amounts than $500, including certain pro- 
posals guaranteeing the loan, amounted in the aggregate to 
more than $1,400,000,000. 

The navy took the first steps in actual hostilities; orders 
for a blockade of Cuba were issued on 21 April, and the block- 
ade was established and proclaimed on 22 April ; in his procla- 
mation of 26 April the president set forth at length the prin- 
ciples that would govern the conduct of the government with 
regard to the rights of neutrals and the other points of naval 
warfare. The nation had scarcely felt a realizing sense of the 
existence of war before there came news of Dewey's magnifi- 
cent victory at Manila. This event, coming at a comparatively 
early date in the war, fired the national heart with great enthu- 
siasm, and added immensely to the prestige of our navy 
abroad. The country's elation over such an unprecedented 
victory caused the people to wait with eager expectation for 
news from the operations in Cuban waters. On 4 May Ad- 
miral Sampson's squadron sailed from Key West; on the 12th 
it engaged the forts at San Juan de Puerto Rico. This was 
but a reconnoissance to discover whether or not the fleet 
under Admiral Cervera was in port ; for the main object of the 
navy was to engage and destroy the Spanish fleet, which had 
left the Cape Verde islands on 29 April. On 19 May Commo- 
dore Schley's flying squadron sailed from Key West for Cien- 
fuegos. On the same day the navy department was informed 
of Cervera's presence at Santiago, and this information was 
transmitted to Commodore Schley at Cienfuegos through 
Admiral Sampson. Commodore Schley then proceeded to San- 



536 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

tiago. Sampson joined Schley on i June, and assumed com- 
mand of the entire fleet. 

Naval operations against Santiago had as a prelude the 
landing on 10 June of 600 marines, who intrenched themselves 
near the harbor of Guantanamo, and successfully repulsed 
repeated attacks by the Spaniards. The army that had been 
collecting at Tampa was now ready for action, and on 14 June 
Gen. Shafter with 16,000 men embarked for Cuba, under escort 
of II war-ships. The troops arrived off Guantanamo Bay on 
the 20th, and began landing on the 22d at Daiquiri, 17 miles east 
of Santiago, the entire army being disembarked by the 23d 
with only two casualties. The forward movement was begun 
at once ; after a sharp action near La Quasima on the 24th, in 
which the Americans under Gen. Wheeler lost 16 killed and 52 
wounded, came on i July the storming of the heights of El 
Caney and San Juan near Santiago. In the two days' fighting 
at this point the loss for the U. S. troops was 230 killed, 1,284 
wounded, and 79 missing. Gen. Shafter found Santiago so 
well defended that he feared he could take it only with a 
serious loss of life; he must have re-enforcements. The 
situation rested thus on the morning of 3 July, but by night of 
the same day it had changed completely. On that morning 
Cervera, after peremptory orders from Gen. Blanco, ordered 
his fleet to sea from its sheltered position in the harbor. The 
blockading vessels closed in upon the Spanish ships immedi- 
ately upon their appearance, following them closely as they 
turned in flight to the west, and by evening had sunk or dis- 
abled every one of them, losing but i man killed and 10 
wounded, as compared with a loss to the enemy of about 350 
killed and 1,670 prisoners. 

On the morning of the 3d Gen. Shafter sent a flag of truce 
into Santiago, demanding immediate surrender on pain of bom- 
bardment. This was refused, but at the request of the foreign 
consuls Shafter agreed to postpone bombardment until ten 
o'clock on 5 July. On the 5th, at a conference with Capt. 
Chadwick, representing Admiral Sampson, it was agreed that 
the army and navy should make a joint attack on the city at 
noon of the 9th. A truce was arranged until that date, when 
Gen. Shafter repeated his demand and the threat of bombard- 
ment. Unconditional surrender was refused, which the presi- 
dent demanded. 



WILLIAM Mckinley. 



537 



On the loth and nth firing went on from the trenches and 
the ships, and by evening of the latter day all the Spanish 
artillery had been silenced. A truce was arranged as a pre- 
liminary to surrender. Gen. Miles arrived at Gen. Shafter's 
headquarters on the 12th. Terms were finally settled on the 
17th, when the U. S. troops took possession of the city. On 
the 2ist Gen. Miles sailed with an expedition to Puerto Rico, 
where he landed on the 25th. His progress through the island 
met with little resistance, the inhabitants turning out to wel- 
come the invading troops as deliverers. In less than three 
weeks the forces of the United States rendered untenable 
every Spanish position outside of San Juan ; the Spaniards 
were defeated in six engagements, with a loss to the invaders 
of only 3 killed and 40 wounded, about one-tenth of the Span- 
ish loss. 

After the fall of Santiago it was evident at Madrid that 
further resistance was useless, and that a prolongation of the 
war would mean only more severe terms. On 26 July Jules 
Cambon, the French ambassador at Washington, was requested 
to inquire if peace negotiations might be opened. President 
McKinley replied to the note on the 30th, stating the prelimi- 
nary conditions that the United States would insist upon as a 
basis of negotiations. A protocol of agreement was signed on 
12 Aug. by Secretary Day and Ambassador Cambon, in which 
the stipulations were embodied in six articles, fixing, besides, 
a term of evacuation for the West Indian islands, and settling 
I Oct. following as the date of meeting of commissioners to 
settle the terms of peace between this country and Spain. 

Now that the war was practically over, it became necessary 
to withdraw as many of the U. S. troops as possible from the 
unhealthy situation in Cuba. A camp was hastily provided at 
Montauk Point, Long Island, and hither the troops were hur- 
ried from Cuba. Suffering could not be avoided, of course, 
and from Camp Wikoff at Montauk Point, and from the twelve 
other chief army camps as well as the smaller ones, went up a 
cry that the troops were not receiving the careful attention 
they deserved. President McKinley made a personal visit to 
Montauk Point in August to satisfy himself as to the actual 
state of affairs. In September he appointed a commission to 
investigate the charges of criminal neglect of the soldiers in 
camp, field, hospital, and transport, and to examine the admin- 



538 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



istration of the war department in all its branches. The com- 
mission met first on 27 Sept., sat in many places, and heard 
witnesses in city and camp. Gen. Miles, in his testimony, 
described the beef furnished the troops as " embalmed," and 
in reply on 12 Jan., 1899, Commissary-Gen. Eagan denied the 
charge, and made such a bitter personal attack upon Gen. Miles 
that the president ordered his trial by court-martial, with the 
result that he was found guilty of conduct unbecoming an 
officer and a gentleman, and sentenced to dismissal from the 
army. This was commuted by the president on 7 Feb. to sus- 
pension for six years. The commission made its report on 8 
Feb., and on 9 Feb. an army court of inquiry was appointed 
by the president to investigate the charges of Gen. Miles in 
relation to the beef-supply. The court found that the allega- 
tions were not sustained. 

On 26 Aug. President McKinley appointed William R. Day, 
Cushman K. Davis, William P. Frye, Whitelaw Reid, and 
George Gray as peace commissioners. John Bassett Moore 
was appointed secretary and counsel. The commissioners 
met the Spanish commissioners in Paris on i Oct. Negotia- 
tions continued until 10 Dec, when the treaty was signed. It 
provided for the relinquishment by Spain of all claims of sov- 
ereignty over and title to Cuba; the cession of all other Span- 
ish West India islands, and of Guam in the Ladrone group; 
the cession of the Philippines to the United States, and the 
payment to Spain by the United States of $20,000,000 within 
three months after the exchange of ratifications of the treaty; 
Spanish soldiers were to be repatriated at the expense of the 
United States. Other details settling property rights were 
also included ; ratifications were to be exchanged at Washing- 
ton within six months, or earlier, if possible. The commis- 
sioners returned to the United States late in December, and 
submitted the official text of the treaty to the president, who 
retained it for consideration until 4 Jan., 1899, and then trans- 
mitted it to the senate, where it was at once referred to the 
committee on foreign relations. In his annual message to 
congress on 5 Dec. the president had contented himself largely 
with a simple narrative of events that led up to the war, sug- 
gesting his own theory as to its causes, and deferring all dis- 
cussion of the future government of the new territories until 
after the ratification of the treaty of peace. He recommended 



WILLIAM MCKINLEY. 



539 



also careful consideration of the provisions suggested by Sec- 
retary Alger and Mr. Hull, chairman of the house committee 
on military affairs, for the enlargement of the regular army. 
The president was given opportunity to impress his views upon 
the country less formally, but none the less effectively, in his 
speeches and addresses on his trip to the Omaha Exposition in 
October and visit to the Atlanta peace jubilee during Decem- 
ber, 1898. Nevertheless, there were anxious weeks of waiting 
after the treaty had been given to the senate for consideration, 
weeks in which little was certain, except that there was a 
strong, forceful opposition in that body to its ratification, 
urged on by various motives, but nevertheless united suffi- 
ciently to make the friends of the treaty anxious for its fate, 
and, to the relief of the president and the country, the treaty 
was duly ratified. It is not probable that the war in the 
Philippines, precipitated by the night attacks of the insurgents 
upon the U. S. forces on 4 Feb , had any great weight in influ- 
encing the voting upon the treaty ; there can be little doubt, 
however, that the insurgent leaders, ignorant of the real feel- 
ings of the people at large, did draw encouragement for them- 
selves from the reports of opposition to the treaty. 

The question of peace with Spain once settled, the out- 
break in the Philippines opened a new problem to the presi- 
dent. Anxious for information on the situation in those 
islands, he had appointed in January a commission of five, 
consisting of Admiral Dewey, Gen. Otis, President J. G. 
Schurmann, of Cornell, Prof. Dean C. Worcester, of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, and Col, Charles Denby, for many years 
U. S. minister to China, to study the general situation in the 
Philippines and to act in an advisory capacity. In this step 
the president had shown his desire to act only upon ample 
information. When actual hostilities broke out, however, there 
was left to him but one thing to do : the insurrection must be 
put down. For this reason he gave Gen. Otis, in his policy of 
vigorous action, all the support possible. 

Another difficulty for his solution arose in the condition of 
affairs in the Samoan islands. After the death in 1898 of 
Malietoa, King of Samoa, a struggle for the succession took 
place in the islands between the followers of Mataafa and of 
young Malietoa. For ten years Germany, Great Britain, and 
the United States had exercised joint control over the islands. 



540 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



This position of the three powers, coupled with the continuous 
fighting among the natives, seemed to promise a serious prob- 
lem for the president, but by perfect coolness and uniform 
good judgment he brought the matter to a satisfactory issue. 
On the proposal of Germany, each of the three powers ap- 
pointed one member of a commission to visit the islands and 
to investigate the entire question, beginning with the return 
of Mataafa and the election of 1898. Bartlett Tripp was 
appointed by the United States, Baron Speck von Sternberg 
by Germany, and C. N. E. Eliot by Great Britain. The com- 
mission unanimously recommended the abolition of the king- 
ship and radical changes in the administration of Samoa. The 
three powers, however, recognizing the inexpediency of con- 
tinuing any tripartite government of the islands, agreed upon 
an arrangement by which England retired from Samoa in view 
of compensation made by Germany in other quarters, and 
both powers renounced in favor of the United States all their 
rights and claims to the islands east of 171°, including Tutuila, 
with the fine harbor of Pago-Pago. 

The president's appointments for the delegation to repre- 
sent the United States at the peace conference called by the 
czar of Russia in 1898, which assembled at The Hague in 
May, 1899, were most favorably received. The delegation 
consisted of Andrew D. White, ambassador at Berlin ; Stan- 
ford Newel, minister to Holland; Seth Low, president of 
Columbia university; Capt. Alfred T. Mahan, U. S. navy 
(retired) ; and Capt. William Crozier, U. S. army. Frederick 
W. Holls, of New York, was appointed secretary. 

Of domestic events in the latter months of the first half of 
1899 one of the most important was the order of 29 May, in 
which the president withdrew a number of places in the civil 
service of the government from the operation of the system of 
appointment on the result of examinations conducted by the 
civil service commission. The president found a strong sup- 
porter and defender in the secretary of the treasury, who con- 
tended that the order was a beneficial step for the reform of 
the civil service; that only those positions had been exempted 
that experience had shown could be filled best without exami- 
nation, and that the change had not been made in the slightest 
degree at the instance of the spoilsmen. The president and 
Mrs. McKinley spent the summers of 1897 and 1899 at a pop- 



WILLIAM Mckinley. 541 

ular resort on Lake Champlain, and in August of the latter 
year the president made an eloquent address at the Catholic 
summer school, Cliff Haven, N. Y., in the course of which, re- 
ferring to the condition of affairs in the Philippine islands, he 
said : " Rebellion may delay, but it can never defeat the Amer- 
ican flag's blessed mission of liberty and humanity." Later, at 
the Ocean Grove Assembly, New Jersey, McKinley remarked : 
" There has been doubt expressed in some quarters as to the 
purpose of the government respecting the Philippines. I can 
see no harm in stating it in this presence. Peace first, then, 
with charity for all, the establishment of a government of law 
and order, protecting life and property and occupation for the 
well-being of the people, in which they will participate under 
the Stars and Stripes." The president's message to congress 
in December, 1899, was cordially received and very generally 
commended throughout the country. 

During the year 1900 the volume of currency per capita 
was the greatest in the history of the nation ; the total money 
of the country on i Sept. amounted to over two billions and 
ninety-six millions of dollars. Industrial and agricultural 
conditions advanced in prosperity in every section of the 
United States. Under these benign conditions the nation has 
also become a money-lending instead of a money-borrowing 
country. The national and international questions which arose 
during the year were of a most serious nature, but were solved 
by President McKinley and his cabinet with unusual sagacity, 
and with results of the highest importance to the United States 
and to the world at large. 

The original Philippine commission, headed by President 
Jacob G. Schurman, submitted its full report on 31 Jan., 
1900. On 6 Feb. President McKinley selected Judge William 
H. Taft to head a new commission, which was completed by 
16 March, and reached Manila on 3 June. The laborious en- 
deavors of the Taft commission began to bear fruit, and on 
I Sept., under its direction, civil government was inaugurated 
in the archipelago. A vital death-stroke was dealt the insur- 
rectionists by the capture of the rebel dictator, Aguinaldo, in 
March, 1901, by Gen. Funston and a small band of men, who 
achieved success through stratagem and disguise. 

Early in the summer of 1900 the civilized world was startled 
by news that the foreign legations at Pekin, China, were be- 



542 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



sieged by an angry horde of celestials. A secret society, com- 
monly known as " Boxers," determined upon the extermination 
of all foreigners in the Chinese empire. For a time wild 
reports were current that the entire legationers and their 
charges had been massacred. On 20 July the first ofificial news 
to the contrary was received at Washington from United 
States Mmister Conger. Europe doubted its authenticity, but 
further developments showed it to be genuine. The events 
which began with the destruction of the forts at Taku and 
ended with the capture of Pekin by the allied forces of Europe 
and the United States in August are a matter of contemporary 
history, in the making of which President McKinley and the 
United States played a conspicuous part. The president's 
moral influence for justice and fairness to China in her difficul- 
ties, resulting from the rashness of her misguided rulers and 
people, has been second to none among the leaders of the 
world's great nations. 

Among the more important measures which Mr. McKinley 
forwarded during 1900 and early in 1901 the following maybe 
mentioned : An established government for Porto Rico and 
the Philippines; the redemption of the pledge of the United 
States to Cuba for the inauguration of independent civil rule 
in the island ; a reorganization of the army of the United 
States; extension of the American merchant marine; the con- 
struction of the Nicaragua Canal ; and the signing of reci- 
procity treaties with various European powers. 

At the Republican National Convention which was held in 
Philadelphia in June, 1900, President McKinley was unani- 
mously renominated for a second term, and Theodore Roose- 
velt, then governor of New York, was likewise nominated 
unanimously for the vice - presidency. Their Democratic 
opponents were, respectively, William Jennings Bryan and 
Adlai E. Stevenson. At the election on 6 Nov. the Repub- 
lican candidates were elected, having carried twenty-eight 
states with 292 electoral votes. Their plurality of the popu- 
lar vote was nearly a quarter of a million greater than in 1896. 
The members of the cabinet were all reappointed, but in 
March, 1901, Mr. Griggs resigned, and was succeeded by 
Philander C. Knox, of Pennsylvania, as attorney general. On 
29 April, accompanied by Mrs. McKinley, his cabinet, and 
other officials, the president left Washington on an excursion 



WILLIAM MCKINLEY. 



543 



to the Pacific coast via New Orleans. On the day following, 
speaking at Memphis, Mr. McKinley said : 

"What a mighty, resistless power for good is a united nation 
of free men ! It makes for peace and prestige, for progress and 
liberty. It conserves the rights of the people and strengthens 
the pillars of the government, and is a fulfillment of that more 
perfect union for which our Revolutionary fathers strove, and 
for which the constitution was made. No citizen of the republic 
rejoices more than I do at this happy state, and none will do 
more within his sphere to continue and strengthen it. Our past 
has gone into history. No brighter one adorns the annals of 
mankind. Our task is for the future. We leave the old cen- 
tury behind us, holding on to its achievements and cherishing 
its memories, and turn with hope to the new, with its opportu- 
nities and obligations. These we must meet, men of the South, 
men of the North, with high purpose and resolution. With- 
out internal troubles to distract us or jealousies to disturb our 
judgment, we will solve the problems which confront us un- 
trammeled by the past, and wisely and courageously pursue a 
policy of right and justice in all things, making the future, un- 
der God, even more glorious than the past." 

Early in the autumn of 1901 the president, accompanied 
by Mrs. McKinley and several members of his cabinet, visited 
the Buffalo (N. Y.) exposition. On Thursday, 5 Sept., he deliv- 
ered an address embodying the ripest wisdom of his long and 
prosperous political career. It gathered together the experi- 
ence of his many years of service to the country, and announced 
in clear, strong language the policy which was to guide him in 
the future, and which his successor afterward publicly adopted 
as his own. The speech is not merely an expression of the per- 
sonal views of the president, however statesmanlike these may 
be; it is more than that • it is a sound statement of the actual 
problems involved in the new position which, under his own 
wise guidance, our country has assumed in the world. It is 
in a sense Mr. McKinley's legacy to his native land, and as 
such it should be appreciated and preserved by every patriotic 
American. On Friday afternoon, in the music hall of the expo- 
sition, while receiving his fellow-citizens, he was twice shot by 
an assassin, who was executed for the crime during the follow- 
ing month. The president lingered until early on Saturday 
morning, 14 Sept. Funeral services were held in Buffalo, and 



544 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



on Thursday, 19 Sept., which was by President Roosevelt ap- 
pointed a day of mourning and prayer throughout the United 
States. On that day the body laid in state in the national 
Capitol, and was followed by a public funeral. At the same 
time unprecedented honors were paid to the memory of Mc- 
Kinley in St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, London, 
as well as in other parts of the Old World. The dead presi- 
dent's body was temporarily laid to rest in Canton, Ohio, where 
his widow resides. Probably none of his predecessors during 
their terms of office enjoyed as great popularity as William 
McKinley, and it may be safely asserted that the death of no 
other president was so universally mourned among his coun- 
trymen. At least two noble national monuments are to be 
erected to his memory in the city of Washington and in Can- 
ton. See " Speeches and Ad- 
dresses of William McKinley," 
compiled by Joseph P. Smith 
(New York, 1893) ; the " Life of 
Major McKinley," by Robert P. 
Porter (Cleveland, 1896) ; and 
" Speeches and Addresses of 
William McKinley, from 1897 
' to 1901 " (New York, 1900). 

Major McKinley married, 25 
Jan., 1871, Miss Ida Saxton, 
daughter of James A. and Cath- 
erine Dewalt Saxton. Her 
Ut.*^n,X*^ grandparents were among the 
founders of Canton; her father 
was a banker, who after giving his eldest daughter many 
advantages of education and travel, began her business train- 
ing as cashier in his bank, that she might be fitted for any 
change in fortune. Two daughters were born to them, but 
both died in early childhood. Mrs. McKinley's health, not 
robust at any time, never completely rallied from these deaths 
in quick succession. Although not strong, she successfully 
discharged the social obligations demanded by her position and 
her husband's prominence in public affairs.* 




* The author of the original notice of President McKinley having died in 
February, 1898, the additions covering the period since that date and earlier 
hi^ve been made by the editor of this volume. 




^-Pxji,o-<t^yxj^ /Q>-cr^^-eAy^€^.^^ 



D.APPLETON&C? 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

Until the inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt, forty-seven 
was the age of our youngest president, General Grant. With 
the further exceptions of Polk, Pierce, and Cleveland, no other 
had been under fifty. Roosevelt was not quite forty-three. 
Of twenty-five presidents, he is the fifth whom death, instead 
of election, has placed in the White House. 

Theodore Roosevelt was born 27 Oct., 1858, in his father's 
house, which was No. 28 East 20th Street, New York city. 
Like most of his predecessors in office, he comes of a family 
which has been American since early colonial times. For two 
hundred and fifty years New York has been the native soil of 
the Roosevelts. Since they made their beginnings in the colo- 
nies, they have been plentifully represented in public life and 
in good works; and a study of former Roosevelts shows them 
to have attained distinction as fighters, as writers, in politics, 
and in philanthropy. It would seem that President Roosevelt 
drew from all these ancestral sources the qualities that have 
so forcibly marked his career. 

His boyhood was passed chiefly in the city of his birth, and 
it was here that he received his early schooling. In that day 
the health of his body seems to have been fragile ; the ordinary 
games of boys were beyond his strength. But it is evident 
there could have been no weakness in the health of his mind. 
Perceiving the necessity for a vigorous constitution, he set 
himself to the getting of one. From this purpose he seems 
never to have swerved, and by the time he was ready to enter 
Harvard College he had begun to be robust. 

His four years of college life show his character and ten- 
dencies as completely as does any period which has followed 
them. His energies were directed to bodily exercise, to study, 
and to all the social advantages that Boston afforded him. 



546 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Although conspicuous in no single athletic sport, he was ener- 
getic in a variety, sparring and horsemanship being among 
them. His knowledge of sparring, besides the general benefit 
that it was to him, proved at least upon one later occasion in 
the West of particular service, and enabled him most success- 
fully to surprise a typical saloon bully who had attempted to 
take liberties with him. As a student, he was as attentive and 
energetic as in muscular exercise; and here also, though not 
conspicuous in any one branch, he devoted himself with indus- 
try to several, political history being perhaps the chief of 
these. He read " The Federalist " with especial interest and 
attention, and his mind evidently turned as by instinct to such 
questions and problems as our republic has solved already, or 
has still to solve. During his college course he was an editor 
of the " Harvard Advocate," in whose columns he made his 
first appearances in print. Besides political history, he con- 
tinued an interest in natural history, which had been begun in 
those boyhood days when he was in search of health, and stud- 
ied the birds of his country neighborhood near Oyster Bay. 
He was graduated in 1880, a student of sufficiently high rank 
to make him a member of the Phi Beta Kappa society. 

Upon leaving college he traveled in Europe, and here also 
his time may be said to have been divided between study and 
hard physical exercise. This latter was mainly in Switzerland, 
where he climbed, among other peaks, the Matterhorn. Upon 
his return from Europe, where he had been absent for about a 
year, he studied law for a time in the office of his uncle, Rob- 
ert B. Roosevelt. This was in the year 1881, which saw him 
attend his first primary and also write his first book, "A His- 
tory of the War of 181 2." The book was the beginning of 
an eminent literary career, as the primary was the beginning 
of a political career still more eminent. 

It is said that applause was the only result of Roosevelt's 
first political speech, somewhat to his surprise. His entire 
inexperience led him to mistake the clapping of hands for a 
conversion of morals; but the approval was only a good- 
natured and half-ironic encouragement to a young beginner 
who seemed in his innocence to be advocating reform, and it 
went no further — the morals and the votes remained as if 
Mr. Roosevelt had not existed. Nevertheless, he had made 
an impression. Very soon after this first attempt there was 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



547 



a revolt in his district, the Twenty-first. Dissatisfaction with 
some of the leaders led to a split, and the party in revolt chose 
Roosevelt as their candidate to the assembly. 

The close of 1881 saw Theodore Roosevelt a member of 
the New York Assembly from the Twenty-first district, and 
identified so closely with the cause of decent politics, and so 
plainly a type of clean patriot, as to win from his opponents, 
the routine politicians, the men with no creed save their pocket, 
the name of Silk Stockings. 

With such a name the politicians of the pocket expected 
that the young reformer's career would be short-lived. To 
their somewhat limited vision he had everything against him. 
He was highly educated ; he came of a line of forefathers who 
had been well-to-do, and also public spirited for the sake of the 
common welfare instead of for their own ; and he belonged to 
what is called Society. These were heavy odds, in their opin- 
ion, against a man's being useful to his country and harmful 
to themselves, and so they dismissed 
him with the term Silk Stockings. 
But they reckoned without the Amer- 
ican people, who, when it comes to 
the point, are fond of honesty. The 
young reformer had a strong equip- 
ment. He had made himself phys- 
ically vigorous. His determination 
was implacable. He had studied gov- 
ernment with all the earnestness of 
his character. He had visited for- 
eign places and returned possessing /^g^^,,,^,^ X'^^.^^oeer- 
a knowledge of other countries, and 

hence, through power to make practical comparisons, the key 
to a proper understanding of his own. And to this very rich 
equipment he added the true spirit of democracy, recognizing 
merit wherever he met it. Such a man was Theodore Roose- 
velt when he went to Albany at the age of twenty-three, the 
youngest assemblyman in New York. To the surprise and 
distaste of the purse politicians he was twice re-elected to 
the legislature, serving the terms of 1882, 1883, and 1884, and 
coming to be the leader of the minority. 

One of the chief measures for cleanliness in which he played 
a leading part was abolishing the fees in the office of the regis- 
36 




548 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

ter and county clerk. Through the investigation which he then 
originated, it came to Hght that the county clerk took $82,000 
a year in fees, and that the sheriff pocketed about $100,- 
000. These traditional thefts were ended through Mr. Roose- 
velt's agency. Through him was abolished the power of the 
New York board of aldermen to confirm or reject the mayor's 
appointments. He also secured the passage of the civil-ser- 
vice reform law of 1884. Besides these achievements he put 
through the anti-tenement cigar-factory bill. A police in- 
vestigation would have been instituted under his inspiration 
had he longer remained an assemblyman. Such an activity as 
this naturally got him many enemies among the purse poli- 
ticians; nevertheless, in 1884 he had made such strong friends 
that he was sent to the republican national convention. It 
was as a supporter of Mr. Edmunds in opposition to Mr. Blaine 
that he went to Chicago. 

In this same year of 1884 he joined the National Guard of 
New York, beginning as lieutenant in the Eighth regiment, and 
ending as captain. His service in the militia somewhat exceeded 
four years in duration, and was most useful to him as a prepara- 
tion for his more important activity in the Spanish war of 1898. 

The year of 1884 also saw an important crisis in Mr. Roose- 
velt's career. Upon Mr. Blaine's becoming the republican 
candidate for president, those friends of Mr. Roosevelt whose 
faith in him had been based upon his political independence 
were turned against him because of his adherence to his party's 
choice. Although he has been known to say that he does not 
count party allegiance among the Ten Commandments, it is 
nevertheless his belief that breaking with one's party should 
be a step of the last resort; that in nine cases out of ten more 
effective good can be rendered by remaining with one's party even 
while not in total agreement with it. Mr. Roosevelt declined 
to join that movement of republicans which elected Mr. Cleve- 
land. The enmity from former friends which he incurred by 
this has been as bitter, and sometimes almost as harmful, as 
the enmity which he has always had from purse politicians. 

Before this time Roosevelt had traveled in the West. He 
now returned there and became a ranchman at Medora on the 
Little Missouri. Of his experiences in the Rocky Mountains 
much has been said ; it is enough to say here that they made a 
picturesque episode in Roosevelt's life, added to his knowledge 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



549 



and his love of the American people and to their knowledge 
and love of him. From these years he also drew the inspira- 
tion and the material for his books about western life, which 
were the first complete picture of this life that had appeared 
in literature. Mr. Roosevelt returned East in 1886. 

He was now again called into the world of politics, and 
became a candidate for mayor of New York. He had accepted 
an independent nomination, and upon this was indorsed by 
the republican party. He was defeated by Mr. Hewitt, but 
he polled relatively a larger vote than any republican candi- 
date had done up to that time. As usual, no activities, whether 
those of a wilderness hunter or those of a republican candi- 
date for office, caused his pen to be idle. In this year he wrote 
his "Life of Thomas H. Benton," and in the following year his 
" Life of Gouverneur Morris." As to his literary style, it should 
perhaps be remarked that the themes which he has usually 
chosen do not call for all the resources of expression that he 
has at command. Force, simplicity, clearness, and, when neces- 
sary, incisive satire, are the qualities which his historic, politi- 
cal, and critical writings reveal; but besides these characteris- 
tics he can use, when he wants it, considerable poetic subtlety. 
No man who had not in him somewhere a strain of the artist 
could have made the remark which he did about the Western 
Bad Lands, that they resembled in appearance the sound of 
the language used by Edgar Allan Poe. 

After his contest for the mayoralty of New York, though he 
was to be nine years in the public service, no elective office 
was offered him until he ran for governor of the state. In 
1889 he was appointed by President Harrison a member of the 
United States civil service commission. 

As his life had been at Albany, so it now was in Washing- 
ton — a struggle for honesty against the purse politicians. His 
methods here were the same as those which had surprised and 
dismayed the legislatures of New York. They were (as they 
have always been) characterized by a directness and candor 
which on the face of them appeared to be based upon inex- 
perience or ignorance, but which were in reality based upon 
extremely shrewd and adroit observation. Mr. Roosevelt 
added twenty thousand places to the scope of the reform law, 
and so admirable was his work altogether that President Har- 
rison has said of it : " If he had no other record than his service 



550 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



as an employee of the civil service commission, he would be 
deserving of the nation's gratitude and confidence." Mr. Cleve- 
land, upon succeeding Mr. Harrison as president, retained 
Roosevelt, and thus his work continued for two years more, 
until I May, 1895, when he resigned to become president of 
the Police board of New York city. 

Besides his other labors, while in Washington, he had begun 
what he considers his most important literary work, "The 
Winning of the West," and had also written many fugitive 
articles upon the subjects of natural history and politics. 

For nearly two years he was president of the Police board 
of New York city, where, as usual, he set himself to the clean- 
ing of the corruption and the blackmail with which he found 
the entire department rotten. His measures produced the 
natural outcry of rage from the politicians with whose pock- 
ets he began mate- 
rially to interfere, 
and his enforce- 
ment of the excise 
law was for a while 
unfavorably looked 
upon by many of 
his friends. But 
he was of Presi- 
dent Grant's opin- 
ion, that if you de- 
sire the repealing 
of a bad law you 
had better enforce it; and enforce the excise law he did. But 
his new ways, which so disgusted the politicians, delighted the 
policemen, who soon recognized in him their best friend. His 
midnight visits to all sorts of streets and haunts in a sort of incog- 
nito in order that he might be able to see with his own eyes how 
his orders were being carried out, came to be liked more than 
they were feared; while his instant recognition and rewarding 
of any bravery shown by a policeman while in the course of 
duty still more endeared him to the force. It is recorded that 
until Roosevelt's time if any policeman happened to ruin his 
clothes through the process of making an arrest the price of a 
new suit came out of his own pocket. Roosevelt remedied this 
injustice, and a new suit was furnished at the public expense. 




WHITE HOUSE, 

WASHINGTON. 



/f^CTO- Z. S~ '^ / ^ o/ 
^i^ir%^^ ''fiuZ^€>< *-^r-<^, /^-^S^^.*-^ 



^jCo^" '*^*-w<' 



— «^-er»--i. 



Ui^J^^ yyjt^.^!t^c< 






THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



551 



On 6 April, 1897, he was again called to Washington, this 
time to serve as assistant secretary of the navy. In this 
office he spent just one year and one month. To his immense 
energy and intelligent knowledge of what was required to make 
a navy efficient in time of war are largely due the successes 
which attended our captains in 1898. In that year, and on the 
6th of May, Theodore Roosevelt resigned his position as assist- 
ant secretary of the navy. War had been declared against 
Spain, and for every reason he was moved to take a personal 
part in the contest. He felt that any man who had talked so 
much and written so much about the duty and the necessity of 
defending one's country should make good his words by deeds. 

His apprenticeship in the New York militia now served him 
in good stead. With Leonard Wood as colonel and himself as 
lieutenant-colonel the first cavalry regiment of United States 
volunteers was organized. Owing partly to the unusual and 
picturesque personnel of the enlisted men, comprising young 
fellows from Newport and cowboys from the West, united in a 
brotherhood of patriotism and adventure, each discovering that 
one was as good as the other, and also partly owing to the per- 
sonality and the capabilities of Roosevelt and Wood, this regi- 
ment became undoubtedly one of the popular heroes of the 
Spanish war. Even the name of Dewey will hardly live more 
upon the lips and in the hearts of the people than the name of 
the Rough Riders. Their part at San Juan was an unusually 
brilliant one for a volunteer regiment in its first campaign ; and 
when the war was over Mr. Roosevelt found himself a national 
figure, and also the center of popular enthusiasm in his own 
state. It was not possible for his political enemies to stand 
up against the fervor which the name of Roosevelt instantly 
aroused upon any occasion; and little to the relish of these 
politicians, they were obliged to accept him as the candi- 
date of the republican party for governor of New York. In 
the fall of 1898, at the age of thirty-nine, Theodore Roose- 
velt was chosen to this office. It is singular to contemplate 
his two kinds of enemies. These were, on the one hand, the 
rabble of dishonesty and ring politics that he had been suc- 
cessfully fighting and thwarting since the beginning of his 
career, and, on the other, certain supercivilized citizens of 
Boston and New York, whose inflamed consciences had devel- 
oped into tumors. The " New York Journal " and the " Even- 



552 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



ing Post" have at various times denounced Mr. Roosevelt with 
equal bitterness, concealing as much as possible his successes 
and exaggerating as much as possible his failures. 

No one knew better than the governor that his work in the 
cause of honesty in New York was scarcely begun in the spring 
of 1900. Some things he had certainly accomplished, and in 
some efforts he had distinctly failed. These events draw too 
near the present time to demand recapitulation. But it must 
be stated by way of reminder how greatly he deprecated the 
notion of being taken from his work in New York for any 
reason whatever. Events, however, are stronger than any 
man's opinion; and in looking back upon the popular deter- 
mination that Theodore Roosevelt should be the next vice- 
president, the religious mind is tempted to see in this the hand 
of a foreseeing and guiding Providence. The attention of our 
country has too often been careless in the choice of a vice- 
president. Totally against his will, therefore, but entirely 
beyond his control, the sweep of his popularity brought him 
the republican nomination. 

On 4 March, 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became Vice-Presi- 
dent of the United States. He held this office six months and 
ten days. On Friday, 6 Sept., 1901, President McKinley was 
shot at Buffalo; he died on Saturday, the 14th of the same 
month. This tragedy brought upon Roosevelt suddenly the 
greatest responsibilities which a man's shoulders can be called 
upon to bear. At Buffalo, upon that day, at the residence of 
Mr. Wilcox, Elihu Root, the secretary of war, requested, for 
reasons of weight connected with the administration of the 
government, that Mr. Roosevelt take the oath as president at 
once. Mr. Roosevelt replied: "I shall take the oath of office 
in obedience to your request, sir, and in doing so it shall 
be my aim to continue absolutely unbroken the policy of 
President McKinley, which has given peace, prosperity, and 
honor to our beloved country." These words were not long 
in spreading far and wide, and their effect produced at once 
a confidence as far and wide. In the presence of all the 
cabinet, save the secretary of state and the secretary of the 
navy, the oath was taken. Judge Hazel of the United States 
District Court administering it. The new president hereupon 
said: "In order to help me keep the promise I have taken, 
I would ask all the cabinet to retain their positions at least for 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



553 



some months to come. I shall rely upon you, gentlemen, upon 
your loyalty and fidelity to help me." The sentiment of these 
words also produced a happy effect upon the nation ; and a few 
days later, in Washington, President Roosevelt made clear his 
desire that no changes should occur in the cabinet. The mem- 
bers of it were John Hay, secretary of state ; Lyman J. Gage, 
secretary of the treasury; Elihu Root, secretary of war; John 
D. Long, secretary of the navy ; Ethan A. Hitchcock, secre- 
tary of the interior; James Wilson, secretary of agriculture; 
Philander C. Knox, attorney-general ; Charles Emory Smith, 
postmaster-general. Upon the same Saturday that he took 
the oath. President Roosevelt issued the following: 

" MiLBURN House, Buffalo, Sept. 14, igoi. 
" By the President of the United States, A Proclamation : 

"A terrible bereavement has befallen our people. 

" The President of the United States has been struck down ; 
a crime committed not only against the chief magistrate but 
against every law-abiding and liberty-loving citizen. 

"President McKinley crowned a life of largest love for his 
fellow-men, of most earnest endeavor for their welfare, by a 
death of Christian fortitude ; and both the way in which he 
lived his life and the way in which, in the supreme hour of trial, 
he met his death will remain forever a precious heritage of our 
people. It is meet that we, as a nation, express our abiding 
love and reverence for his life, our deep sorrow for his untime- 
ly death. 

" Now, therefore, I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the 
United States of America, do appoint Thursday next, Septem- 
ber 19th, the day in which the body of the dead president will be 
laid in its last earthly resting-place, as a day of mourning and 
prayer throughout the United States. I earnestly recommend 
all the people to assemble in that day in their respective places 
of divine worship, there to bow down in submission to the will 
of Almighty God, and to pay out of full hearts their homage of 
love and reverence to the great and good president, whose 
death has smitten the nation with bitter grief." 

The acts of President Roosevelt since the date of his oath 
belong with his acts before his last exalted office came to him. 
The best comment upon them is the confidence in his adminis- 



554 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDEXTS. 



tration already shown throughout the country. Whatever dis- 
pleasure political circles may have taken in learning Theodore 
Roosevelt's determination to exclude political influence from 
the army, the navy, and the colonies, must resemble the dis- 
pleasure that political circles have invariably taken at every 
step in his career at learning that he proposed, so far as lay 
withm the scope of his power, to see that merit, and merit only, 
was rewarded, and that honesty, and honesty only, was prac- 
tised. His intentions regarding rural free delivery service in 
the post-otfice department correspond with his well-known views 
as to civil service reform. 

It may be said that his most important acts have not been 
those to create the greatest comment. One of his least impor- 
tant acts, namely, inviting as a guest to his table a distin- 
guished and honorable member of the colored race, occasioned 
an outburst of temper from southern newspapers the folly of 
which reaches such dimensions as to be historical. 

It should be mentioned that Yale, in celebrating her Bi-Cen- 
tennial,in October, 1901, distinguished that memorable occasion 
by conferring upon President Roosevelt the degree of LL. D. 
This academic honor suggests his literary work again ; and 
of his writings the following is as complete a list as can readily 
be made : *' The Naval War of 1812," 2 volumes, 1882 ; " Hunt- 
ing Trips of a Ranchman," 1885; " Thomas Hart Benton," 1887; 
" Gouverneur Morris," 1888; "Essays on Practical Politics," 
1888; " Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail," 188S; "The Win- 
ning of the West," 4 volumes, 18S9-1896; " Brief History of New 
York City," 1891 ; " The Wilderness Hunter," 1893 ; " American 
Ideals, and Other Essays," 1897; "The Rough Riders," 1899; 
"Oliver Cromwell," 1900; "The Strenuous Life," 1901. Besides 
these seventeen volumes, published in nineteen years, are numer- 
ous occasional articles contributed to other volumes, or to pe- 
riodicals. These deal with matters of citizenship, of history, of 
literature, and of zoology. It is not the least remarkable trait 
of the president that in many matters of natural history he 
keeps almost as minutely informed of the latest thought con- 
cerning them as if he were himself a specialist. 

His first annual message to Congress, 3 Dec, 1901, was, as 
could be expected, entirely like himself and wholly unlike most 
of the preceding documents of this class. Abstract sentiments 
were few ; concrete convictions were many and unequivocally 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



555 



expressed. Its length was immediately forgotten in its interest. 
Its style was of a very close texture; it was the number and 
importance of its topics that made it long. Among the many 
vital themes for legislative attention, such as anarchy, the 
so-called trusts, the army, the navy, the tariff, and civil-service 
reform — to mention no more — there was vagueness in only 
one, namely, the question of ship subsidy. Perhaps no human 
mind could achieve so much expression of opinion about exist- 
ing conditions and future policy without some slight disloca- 
tion of logic somewhere. In speaking of the Philippines, the 
message says : *' What has taken us thirty generations to 
achieve we can not expect to see another race accomplish out 
of hand." This is surely true. But in speaking of the Indian 
tribes, the message says: "The Indian should be treated as an 
individual, like the white man." Placed next to each other, 
these two statements contain elements of humor; perhaps had 
they been called to his attention, Mr. Roosevelt would have 
expressed them differently. 

To describe Theodore Roosevelt as a man of action is true, 
but is not the whole truth ; to describe him as a man of letters 
is equally true, but is not the whole truth. It is not possi- 
ble for contemporary judgment 
adequately to estimate him ; 
to esteem him is easy indeed. 
It should not go unremarked 
that he stood on 14 Sept. more 
unshackled by prejudice than 
has generally been possible for 
one in his position. For him 
the way was unimpeded by ex- 
torted promises, and lay clear 
to work out his duties and his 
aspirations. It was a day to be 
full of hope. 

In 1881 Mr. Roosevelt mar- 
ried Miss Alice Lee, of Boston. 
After being a widower for several years he married Miss Edith 
Kermit Carow, whose portrait appears on this page. The presi- 
dent is the father of six children — Alice, Theodore, Jr., Ethel, 
Quentin, Kermit, and Archibald. The illustration on page 550 
represents his summer home at Oyster Bay, Long Island. 




From a copjiighted photograph by R. \V, Thatcher. 



APPENDIX. 

PRESIDENTS, VICE-PRESIDENTS, 

AND CANDIDATES FOR THESE OFFICES, 

AND CABINET OFFICERS, 

FROM THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION TO THE PRESENT TIME. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
Thomas Jefferson, Sec. State. 
Samuel Osgood, I p^.t. Gen. 
Timothy Pickenng, ) 



GEORGE WASHINGTON, F. 

* George Clinton, R. 
Thomas Jefferson, R. 
Thomas Jefferson, \ 
Edmund Randolph, > Sec State. 
Timothy Pickering, ) 
Edmund Randolph, ) 
William Bradford, >• Att. Gen. 
Charles Lee, ) 



JOHN ADAMS, /^. 
Thomas Pinckney, F. 
Aaron Burr, R. 
Timothy Pickering, { ^ ^ 
John Marshall, J ^^'^^ ^^^^^• 

Oliver Wolcott, ) r, ™ 
Samuel Dexter, \ S^*^- ^reas. 



1789. 

John Adams. 

Alexander Hamilton, Sec. Treas. 
Henry Knox, Sec. War. 
Edmund Randolph, Att. Gen. 

1793. 

John Adams, F. 
Aaron Burr, R. 

Alexander Hamilton, } ^ x 
Oliver Wolcott, ^ ^^^- ^ '■^^^• 

Henry Knox, ) 

Timothy Pickering, > Sec. War. 
James McHenrj', ) 
Timothy Pickering, ) p ^ 
Joseph Habersham, \ ^^^^- '^^"• 

1797. 

Thomas Jefferson, R. 
Samuel Adams, R. 



Sec. War. 



James McHenry, [ 
Samuel Dexter, ) 
Benjamin Stoddert, Sec. Navy. 
Charles Lee, Att. Gen. 
Joseph Habersham, Post. Gen. 



* The names of unsuccessful candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency are 
printed in italics. 

557 



558 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON, R. 
John Adams, F. 
James Madison, Sec. State. 
Henry Dearborn, Sec. War. 
Levi Lincoln, Att. Gen. 
Joseph Habersliam, 
Gideon Granger, 



Post. Gen. 



1801. 

Aaron Burr, R. 
Charles C. Pinckney, F. 
Samuel Dexter, \ . 
Albert Gallatin, j '"" 
Benjamin Stoddert, 
Robert Smith, 



Sec. Treas. 
|- Sec. Navy. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON, R. 
C. C. Pinckney, F. 
James Madison, Sec. State. 
Albert Gallatin, Sec. Treas. 
Henry Dearborn, / c- it- 
William Eustis, j-^ec. War. 
Gideon Granger, Post. Gen. 



1805. 

George Clinton, R. 

Rufus King, F. 

Robert Smith, ) „ 

J. Crowninshield, [ ^^'^^ ^^^y- 

Levi Lincoln, 1 

Robert Smith, 

J. Breckenridge, 

Caesar A. Rodney, 



■ Att. Gen. 



JAMES MADISON, R. 
C. C. Pinckney, F. 
Robert Smith, / r- o 
James Monroe, )" ^^'^^ ^tate. 
William Eustis, Sec. War. 
Caesar A. Rodney, Att. Gen. 



1809. 

George Clinton, R. 
Rufus King, F. 
Albert Gallatin, Sec. Treas. 
Paul Hamilton, Sec. Navy. 
Gideon Granger, Post. Gen. 



JAMES MADISON, Z>. 

De Witt Clinton, F. 
James Monroe, Sec. State. 
George W. Campbell. 
Alexander J. Dallas, )■ Sec. 
William H." Crawford. 



Treas 



1813. 



William Jones, ) _ .^ 

B. W. Crowninshield, f ^^^- ^^^^y- 



Elbridge Gerry, Z>. 
Jared Ingersoll, F. 
John Armstrong, ) „ „, 
James Monroe, \ ^^^- ^ar. 



Gen. 



William Pinkney, , 
Richard Rush, \ ^"• 
Gideon Granger, ) „ _ 
Return J. Meigs, \ ^°''- ^^n- 



JAMES MONROE, D. 
Rufus King, F. 

John Quincy Adams, Sec. State. 
John C. Calhoun, Sec. War. 
William Wirt, Att. Gen. 
Return J. Meigs, Post Gen. 



1817. 

Daniel D. Tompkins, D. 
J. E. Howard, F. 
William H. Crawford, Sec. Treas. 
B. W. Crowninshield, ) ^ xt 
Smith Thompson, [ ^^'^^ ^^'^■ 



JAMES MONROE, D. 
John Q. Adams, Sec. State. 
William H. Crawford, Sec. Treas. 
William Wirt, Att. Gen. 
R. J. Meigs, \ 
John McLean, [ 



Post. Gen. 



1821 



Daniel D. Tompkins, D. 
John C. Calhoun, Sec. War. 
Smith Thompson, / c. .,. 
Samuel L. Southard, \ '^^'=- ^avy. 



APPENDIX. 



559 



182S. 



JOHN Q. ADAMS, D. 

Andrew Jackson. 
William H. Crawford. 
Henry Clay. 

Henry Clay, Sec. State. 
James Barbour, \ ^ ^ 
P. B. Porter, \^^^- ^'^■^• 
Samuel L. Southard, Sec. Navy. 



John C. Calhoun, £>. 
Nathan San ford. 
Nathati Macon. 
Andrew Jackson. 
Richard Rush, Sec. Treas. 
William Wirt, Att. Gen. 
J. McLean, Post. Gen. 



1829. 



ANDREW JACKSON, D. 
John Q. Adams. 

Martin Van Buren, ^ o o* f. 

Edward Livingston, ) 

John H. Eaton, } g^^ ^^^ 

Lewis Cass, )' ' 

John McPherson Berrien, / . ,^ ^ 
^ ' [• Att. Gen. 



John C. Calhoun, D. 
Richard Rush. 
William Smith. 



Sec. Treas. 



Roger B. Taney, 



ANDREW JACKSON, D. 
Henry Clay. 
John Floyd. 
William. Wirt. 

Edward Livingston, \ 

Louis McLane, > Sec. State. 

John Forsyth, J 

Lewis Cass, / q ,,, 

B. F. Butler, j ^^^- ^^^'"• 

Levi Woodbury, ) (_. -^j 

Mahlon Dickerson, ] ^^^" 



MARTIN VAN BUREN, D. 
William H. Harrison, W. 
Hugh L. White, W. 
Daniel Webster, W. 
Willie P. Mangum, W. 
John Forsyth, Sec. State. 
Joel R. Poinsett, Sec. War. 
Benj. F. Butler, 
Felix Grundy, }■ Att. Gen. 
Henry D. Gilpin, 



WILLIAM H. HARRISON, W 
Martin Van Buren, D. 
James G. Birney, L. P. 



Daniel Webster, Sec. State. 
Thomas Ewing, Sec. Treas. 
John Bell, Sec. War. 



Samuel D. Ingram, ) 
Louis McLane, ) 
John Branch, ) c, t., 
Levi WoodbuiT, \ ^^''- ^^^y- 
William T. Barry, Post. Gen. 



1833. 



Martin Van Buren, D. 
John Sergeant. 
Henry Lee. 
Amos Ellmaker. 
William Wilkins. 



Att. Gen. 



Sec. Treas. 



Roger B. Taney, | 

Benj. F. Butler, | 

Louis McLane, 

William J. Duane, 

Roger B. Taney, 

Levi Woodbury, 

William T. Barry, / r> , „ 

Amos Kendall, f P^^^" ^en. 

1837. 

Richard M. Johnson, D. 
Francis Granger, W. 
John Tjiler, W. 



Levi Woodbury, Sec. Treas. 
Mahlon Dickerson, ) ^ -vt 
James K. Paulding, f ^ec Navy. 
Amos Kendall, / 
John M. Niles, 



Post. Gen. 



1841 



John Tyler, W. 
Richard M. Johnson, D. 
Littleton W. Taze7vell, D. 
James Knox Polk, D. 
Thomas Earl, L. P. 
John J. Crittenden, Att. Gen. 
George E. Badger, Sec. Navy. 
Francis Granger, Post. Gen. 



S6o 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



1841. 
JOHN TYLER, W. 



Daniel Webster, ^ 
Hugh S. Legare, I 
Abel P. Upsnur, | 
John C. Calhoun, J 
Thomas Ewing, i 
Walter Forward, ! 
John C. Spencer, ( 
George M. Bibb, J 
John J. Crittenden, 
Hugh S. Legare, 
John Nelson, 



Sec. State. 



Sec. Treas. 



Att. Gen. 



Sec. War. 



\ Sec. Navy. 



J 



Post. Gen. 



JAMES K. POLK, D. 

Henry Clay, W. 

James G. Birney, L. P. 

James Buchanan, Sec. State. 

John Y. Mason, ) 

Nathan Clifford, )■ Att. Gen. 

Isaac Toucey, J 

Cave Johnson, Post. Gen. 

ZACHARY TAYLOR, W. 

Lewis Cass, D. 
John P. Hale (— ). 
Martin Van Buren, F. S. 
John M. Clayton, Sec. State. 
George W. Crawford, Sec. War. 
Thomas Ewing, Sec. Interior. 
Jacob Collamer, Post. Gen. 



John Bell, 1 

James M. Porter, ! 
John C. Spencer, \ 
William Wilkins, j 
George E. Badger, ~| 
Abel P. Upshur, 
David Henshaw, 
Thos. W. Gilmer, 
John Y. Mason, 
Francis Granger, 
Charles A. Wickliffe 
1845. 

George M. Dallas, D. 
Theodore Frelinghuysen, W. 
Thomas Morris, L. P. 
Robert J. Walker, Sec. Treas. 
George Bancroft, / ^ ^ 
John Y. Mason, f ^^ec. JNavy. 

William L. Marcy, Sec. War. 

1849. 

Millard Fillmore, W. 
William 0. Butler, D. 
Leicester King ( — ). 
Charles Francis Adams, F. S. 
William M. Meredith, Sec. Treas. 
William B. Preston, Sec. Navy. 
Reverdy Johnson, Att. Gen. 

18SO. 



MILLARD FILLMORE, IV. 



Sec. State. 



Daniel Webster, ) 

Edward Everett, [ 

Charles M. Conrad, Sec. War. 

William A. Graham, ) g^^ ^ 

John P. Kennedy, f ' ■'' 



FRANKLIN PIERCE, D. 

Winjield Scott, IV. 
John P. Hale, L. P. 
William L. Marcy, Sec. State. 
Jefferson Davis, Sec. War. 
Robert McClelland, Sec. Interior. 
James Campbell, Post. Gen. 

JAMES BUCHAN.\N, D. 

John C. Fremont, P. 

Millard Fillmore, A. 

Lewis Cass, ) g^^ g^^^^ 

Jeremiah S. Black, ) 

Howell Cobb, ) 

Philip F. Thomas, >■ Sec. Treas. 

John A. Dix, ) 

John B. Floyd, ) g ^ 

Joseph Holt, ^^^^- ^^'^• 



Nathan K. Hall, ) p^^^ ^^^ 

Samuel D. Hubbard, ) 
Thomas Corwin, Sec. Treas. 
Alex. H. H. Stuart, Sec. Interior. 
John J. Crittenden, Att. Gen. 

18S3. 

William R. King, D. 
JVilliam A. Graham, W. 
George IV. Julian, L. P. 
James Guthrie, Sec. Treas. 
James C. Dobbin, Sec. Navy. 
Caleb Gushing, Att. Gen. 

18S7. 

John C. Breckenridge, D. 
William L. Dayton, R. 
Andrew J. Donelson, A. 
Isaac Toucey, Sec. Navy. 
Jacob Thompson, Sec. Interior. 
Jeremiah S. Black, ^ .»* Cpn 
Edwin M. Stanton, f "^"^ ^^''• 
Aaron V. Brown, 
Joseph Holt, y Post. Gen. 
Horatio King, 



APPENDIX. 



561 



1861. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, R. 

Stephen A. Douglas, D. 

John C. Breckenridge, D. 

John Bell, a U. 

William H. Seward, Sec. State. 

Simon Cameron, ( g^^ ^^^^ 

Edwin M. Stanton, f 

Caleb B. Smith, ) r~ t » • 
John P. Usher, peclntenor. 

Gideon Welles, Sec. Navy. 



Hannibal Hamlin, R. 
Herschel V. Johnson, D. 
Joseph Lane, D. 
Edward Everett, C. U. 



Sec. Treas. 



Salmon P. Chase, \ ^ 

Wm. P. Fessenden, f 

Edward Bates, / . ^^ r- 
T c J ■ Att. Gen. 

James Speed, \ 

Montgomery Blair, \ -r, . r 

William Dennison, C ^°^'- ^^'^• 



1865. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, R. 

George B. McClellan, D. 
William H. Seward, Sec. State. 
Edwin M. Stanton, Sec. War. 
John P. Usher, ^ g Interior 
ames Harlan, \ 



Andrew Johnson, R. 
George H. Pendleton, D. 
Hugh McCulloch, Sec. Treas. 
Gideon Welles, Sec. Navy. 
James Speed, Att. Gen. 
William Dennison, Post. Gen. 



State 



William H. Reward, Sec 
Edwin M. Stanton,^ 
Ulysses S Grant. ^g^^ ^ar. 
Lorenzo 1 homas, .' 
John M. Schofield, J 



186S. 
ANDREW JOHNSON. 

James Harlan, ) 

Orville H. Browning, ) 
James Speed, 

Henry Stanbery, )■ Att. Gen 
William M. Evarts, 



Hugh McCulloch, Sec. Treas. 
Gideon Welles, Sec. Navy. 



Sec. Interior. 



William Dennison, ) ^ ^ ^ 
Alex. W. Randall, \ ^^^^^ G^"" 



ULYSSES S. GRANT, R. 

Horatio Seymour, D. 

E. B. Washbume, ) g^^ g^^^^ 

Hamilton Fish, V 

George S. Boutwell, Sec. Treas. 

John A. Rawlins, ) g ,y 

Wm. W. Belknap, j ^^'^- ^^• 



1869. 

Schuyler Colfax, R. 
Francis P. Blair, Jr., D. 
Jacob D. Cox, 
Columbus Delan 



,o,f 



Sec. Interior. 



Adolph E. Borie, \ g ^ 
George M. Robeson, S ^' 

George H. Williams, Att. Gen. 
John A. J. Creswell, Post. Gen. 



ULYSSES S. GRANT, R. 
Horace Greelev, D. 
Charles 0' Conor, S. 0. D. 
James Black, P. 
Hamilton Fish, Sec. State. 
William W^ Belknap, | 
Alphonso Taft, \ Sec, 

J. Donald Cameron, ) 
John A. J. Creswell, 1 
Marshall Jewell, |- Post. 
James N. Tyner, ) 
George M. Robeson, Sec. Navy, 

37 



War. 



Gen. 



1873. 

Henry Wilson, R. 
Benjamin Gratz Brown, D. 



John Q. Adams, S. 0. D. 



Columbus Delano, ) 
Zachariah Chandler, \ 
W^m. A. Richardson, 
Benj. H. Bristow, 
Lot M. Morrill, 
George H. Williams, 
Edward Pierrepont, 
Alphonso Taft, 



Sec. Interior. 



Sec. Treas. 



Att. Gen. 



562 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, 

Samuel J. Tilden, D. 
Peter Cooper, I. N. P. 
Green C. Smith, P. 
William M. Evarts, Sec. State. 

S\Y-'^nTPT°"'f Sec. Navy. 
Nathan Goff, Jr., ) 

David M. Key U^.t. Gen. 
Horace Maynard, \ 



1877. 
R. William A. Wheeler, R. 
Ihomas A. Hendricks, D. 

G. T. Stewart, P. 
John Sherman, Sec. Treas. 
George W. McCrary, [ ^ 
Alexander Ramsey, \ 
Carl Schurz, Sec. Interior. 
Charles Devens, Att. Gen. 



War. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, R. 

Winfield S. Hancock, D. 
James B. Weaver, G. B. 
Neal Dow, P. 
James G. Blaine, Sec. State. 
R. T. Lincoln, Sec. War. 
W. H. Hunt, Sec. Navy. 
Wayne MacVeagh, Att. Gen. 



1881. 

Chester A. Arthur, R. 
William H. English, D. 



William Windom, Sec. Treas. 
S. J. Kirkwood, Sec. Interior. 
Thomas L. James, Post. Gen. 

1881. 



CHESTER A. ARTHUR, R. 



Sec. State. 



James G. Blaine, ) 
F. T. Frelinghuysen, ) 
Robert T. Lincoln, Sec. War. 
William H. Hunt, ) g ^ 
W. E. Chandler, pec. i^avy. 

WayneMacVeagh, >^tt. Gen. 
Benj. H. Brewster, ) 



GROVER CLEVELAND, D. 

James G. Blaine, R. 
Benjamin F. Butler, L. 
John P. St. John, P. 
Thomas F. Bayard, Sec. State. 
William C. Endicott, Sec. War. 
William C. Whitney, Sec. Navy. 
William F. Vilas, ) p . n^^ 
Don M. Dickinson, \ 



;:} 



William Windom, 

Charles J. Folger, 

S. J. Kirkwood, ) g interior 

H. M. Teller, f *^^- -^^^enor. 

T. L. James, ) 

Timothy O. Howe, \ 



Sec. Treas. 



Post. Gen. 



1885. 

Thomas A. Hendricks, D. 
John A. Logan, R. 

William Daniels, P. 

Daniel Manning I gee. Treas. 
Charles S. rairchild, ) 
Augustus H. Garland, Att. Gen. 
Lucius Q.C Lamar, ) g^^ j^^^^j^^_ 
W illiam F. Vilas, ) 



BENJAMIN HARRISON, R. 

Graver Cleveland, D. 

Clinton P. Fisk, P. 

Belva A. B. Lockwood, N. E. R. 

James G. Blaine, ) 

John W. Foster, \ 

Redfield Proctor, I gee. War. 

Stephen B. Elkms, ) 

Benjamin F. Tracy, Sec. Navy. 

John Wanamaker, Post. Gen. 



Sec. State. 



1889. 

Levi Parsons Morton, R. 
Allen Granbery Thurman, D. 



Sec. Treas. 



William Windom, ) 

Charles Foster, f 

William H. H. Miller, Att. Gen. 

John W. Noble, Sec. Interior. 

Jeremiah M. Rusk, Sec. Agric. 



APPENDIX. 



563 



^ GROVER CLEVELAND, D. 

Benjamin Harrison, R. 
James B. Weaver, Peo. P. 
John Bidwell, P. 
Walter QGresham. \ g^^^ g^^^^^ 
Richard Olney, ) 

Daniel S. Lamont, Sec. War. 
Hilary A, Herbert, Sec. Navy. 
Wilson S. Bissell, \ rj^^f /-„„ 
William L. Wilson, \ ^^^^^ ^^°- 



189S. 

Adlai E. Stevenson, D. 

IVhitelaw Reid, R. 
James G. Field, Peo. P. 
James B. Cranjil, P. 

John G. Carlisle, Sec. Treas. 
Richard Olney, / Af* r 
Judson Harmon, [ ^"- '^^"• 
Hoke Smith, ) ^ t . • 

David R. Francis, [ ^^^^ ^"'^"°''- 
J. Sterling Morton, Sec. Agric. 



WILLIAM Mckinley, r. 

William J. Bryan, D., Pop., and 

John M. Palmer, N. D. 
Joshua Levering, Pro. 
Charles E, Bent ley, Nat. Pro. 
Charles H. Matchett, S. L. 
John Sherman, ) 
William R. Day, [■ Sec. State. 
John Hay, ) 

Russell A. Alger, ) g ^ 
Elihu Root, \^^^- ^"• 

James A. Gary, ) 
lith, f 



Charles E. Smith, 



Post Gen, 



1897. 

Garret A. Hobart, R. 

Silv. Arthur Sewall, D. a?id Silv. 

Thomas E. Watson, Pop. 

Simon B. Buckner, N. D. 

Hale Johnson, Pro. 
James //. Southgate, N^at. PfO. 

Matthezu Maguire, S. L. 
Lyman J. Gage, Sec. Treas. 
John D. Long, Sec. Navy. 
Joseph McKenna, ^ . ,^ ^^ 
John W. Griggs, [ A". Gen. 
Cornelius N. Bliss, ] „ _ 

Ethan Allen Hitchcock, \ ^^<=- Intenor. 
James Wilson, Sec. Agric. 



1901. 



WILLIAM McKINLEY, i?. 

William J. Bryan, D. and Pop. 
John G. Woolley, Pro. 

Wharton Barker, Middle of Road Pop. 
Eugene V. Debs, S. D. 
Joseph F. Malloney, S. L. 
J. F. R. Leonard, United Christian. 
Seth H. Ellis, Union Reform. 
John Hay, Sec. State. 
Lyman J. Gage, Sec. Treas. 
Elihu Root, Sec. War. 
Charles E. Smith, Post. Geu. 



Theodore Roosevelt, R. 

Adlai E. Stevenson, D. and Pop. 
Henry B. Me tea If Pro. 
Ignatius Donnelly, Middle of Road Pop. 
Job Harriman, S. D. 
Valentine Remmel, S. L. 
John G. Woolley, United Christian. 
Samuel T. Nicholas, Union Reform. 
John D. Long, Sec. Navy. 
Philander C. Knox, Att. Gen. 
Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Sec. Interior. 
James Wilson, Sec. Agric. 



1901. 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, R. 



John Hay, Sec. State. 
Lyman J. Gage, Sec. Treas. 
Elihu Root, Sec. War, 
Henry C. Payne, Post. Gen. 



John D. Long, Sec. Navy. 
Philander C. Knox, Att. Gen. 
Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Sec. Interior. 
James Wilson, Sec. Agric. 



INDEX. 



Adam and Eve, 76. 
Adams, Abigail, 60, 61, 87. 

Charles Francis, 60, 61, 133, 134, 135, 

178, 258, 319. 
Henry, 36, 130, 136. 
John, biography of, 36-60 ; mentioned, 
10, 20, 23, 60, 61, 68, 72, 84, 121, 187, 

251- 

John Quincy, biography of, 120-133 ; 
mentioned, 60, 78, 109, no, 113, 117, 
152. 153. 154, 159, 167, 198, 199, 209, 
219, 228, 250, 278, 279, 291. 

Samuel, 39, 52, 54, 79, 442. 
African colonization, 255. 
Agassiz, Professor Louis, 397. 
Akerman, Amos T., 387. 
Alabama claims, 382. 
Albany regency, 179. 
Alexander of Russia, 125. 
Alexandria, Va., 25, 26. 
Alfred the Great, 27. 
Alleghany mountains, 13. 
Allen, Lewis F., 468. 

William, 404. 
Ambassador to England, 335. 
Ambrister, Robert, 127, 151. 
Amelia Court-House, Va., 368. 
American college, Rome, 458. 

constitutions, 50. 

credit, 51. 

Herd book, 468. 

loyalists, 48. 

merchant marine, 459. 

system, 198. 

Speaker, 336. 
Ames, Oakes, 437. 
Amiens, treaty of, 104. 
Ampudia, General, 238, 239. 
Anderson, Major Robert, 297, 302. 



Andrew, John A., 135. 
Anti-masons, the, 130, 162. 
Antietam, battle of, 311, 319. 
Appalachicola massacre, 150. 
Appleton, William H., 326. 
Appomattox Court-House, 327, 370, 372. 
Arbuthnot, Alexander, 127, 151. 
Arctic expedition, 461. 
Arista, General, 223, 238, 239, 
Arlington estate, Va., 23' 
Armistead, Miss Mary, 195. 
Armstrong, General John, 144, 147, 191. 
Army of the Cumberland, 359, 432, 442, 

Northern Virginia, 360. 

the Potomac, 311, 319, 359, 360, 362, 
366, 447. 
Arnold, Benedict, 14, 71. 

Isaac N., 333. 

of Rugby, 441. 
Arthur, Chester Alan, biography of, 
444-467 ; mentioned, 335, 416, 447. 

Mrs. Ellen Herndon, 464. 

Rev. William, 444, 467. 
Ashburton, Lord, 284. 

treaty, 210. 
Asken, John A., 337. 
Atkinson, General Henry, 235. 
Atlanta captured, 322. 
Atlanta, siege of, 497. 

Bacon, Edmund, 85. 

William R., 346. 
Bad Axe, battle of, 236. 
Badeau's Life of Grant, 394. 
Badger, George E., 193, 207. 
Ball, Thomas, 29, 332. 
Ballou, Miss Eliza, 426. 
Bancroft, George, 19, 85, 108, 117, 181, 
222, 230. 

565 



566 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Banks, Nathaniel P., 245, 358, 359, 360. 

Barbary pirates, 80. 

Barnburner faction, 117. 

Barry, William T., 155. 

Bass, Lyman K., 469. 

Bates, Edward, 307. 

Bayard, James A., 125. 

Richard H., 205. 

Thomas F., 335, 475. 
Beaumarchais, P. A. C. de, 73. 
Beauregard, Pierre G. T., 309, 354. 
Beecher, Henry Ward, 394. 
Belknap, William W., 387. 
Bell, John, 193, 219, 307, 337. 
Belmont, battle of, 351. 
Benicia barracks, 349. 
Benton, Thomas H., 117, 144, 153, 154, 
162, 164, 166, 199, 200, 204, 261, 281. 
Bering sea case, 503. 
Berlin decrees, 104. 
Bermuda Hundred, 361. 
Bernard, Governor, 38. 
Berrien, John M., 155. 
Biddle, Nicholas, 161. 
Bienvenu plantation, 148. 
Big Bethel, battle of, 431. 
Birney, James G., 211. 
Bissell, Wilson S., 252, 482. 
Black Hawk, 119, 235, 236, 237, 302. 
Black, Jeremiah S., 290. 
Blair, Francis P., 158, 163, 166, 200, 326. 

Montgomery, 200, 307. 
Blaine, James G., 405, 435, 438, 439, 440, 

448, 464, 467, 473. 502, 503. 
Blatchford, Samuel, 462. 
Bliss, Miss Elizabeth, 244. 
Blount, James H., 483. 
Boice, Adolph E., 387. 
Bolivar, General Simon, 192. 
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 27, 80, 112, 
Boone, Daniel, 300. 
Boston Athenaeum, 29. 

Gazette, 38, 40. 

Latin school, 133. 

Massacre, 39. 

Public Library, 12. 

Tea-party, 44. 

United States frigate, 43. 
Botetourt, Lord, 65. 
Botts, John Minor, 206. 
Boutwell, George S., 387. 
Bowdoin, James, 22. 
Bowen, General, 357. 



Boylston, Miss Susannah, 36. 

Braddock, General, 7, 36. 

Brady, John R., 452. 

Branch, John, 155. 

Brandywine, battle of, 14. 

Breckinridge, John C, 273, 290, 307, 360, 

361. 
Brent, Richard, 196, 202. 
Brewster, Benjamin H., 454. 
Bridport, Lord, 27. 
Bristow, Benjamin H., 387, 405, 448. 

Commercial treaty, 49. 
British flag honored, 454. 

and Hessian prisoners, 71. 
Brooks, Peter C, 133. 
Brougham, Lord, 27. 
Brown, Aaron V., 217, 290. 

Henry K., 29, 332. 

Major Jacob, 239. 

Matthew, 85. 
Browne, Sir Thomas, 257. 
Bryant, William C, 166. 
Buchanan, James, biography of, 277- 
299; mentioned, 17S, 212, 222, 257, 
270, 272, 338. 
Buckland, Ralph P., 397. 
Buckner, General Simon B., 353. 
Bucktails, the, 171. 
Buell, General Don Carlos, 310, 353, 354, 

430, 431- 432. 
Buena Vista, battle of, 240. 
Buffalo Historical Society, 261. 
Bull Run, battle of, 309, 460. 
Bunker Hill, battle of, 12. 
Burgoyne's army, 70. 

surrender, 42. 
Burke, Edmund, Reflections, 75. 
Bumside, General Ambrose E., 318, 320. 

in Knoxville, 359. 

monument, 464. 
Burr, Colonel Aaron, 53, 54, 58, 78, 143, 
169. 

Samuel J., 193. 
Burt, Silas W. , 449, 450. 
Bushnell, Dr. Horace, 194. 
Butler, Benjamin F., 171, 182, 473. 

General Benjamin F., 360. 

William Allen, 181. 

Cabell, Joseph C, 83. 85. 

Calhoun, John C, mentioned, 113, 117, 
127, 128, 149, 157, 158, 160, 166, 17s, 
179, 196, 201, 211, 251, 282. 



* 



INDEX. 



567 



Calhoun, Mrs. John C, 157. 

John, surveyor, 303. 
Calumet Club, Chicago, 394. 
Cameron, J. Donald, 387. 

Simon, 307. 
Campbell, James, 269. 
Canada rebellion, 176. 
Canadian sealers, 503. 
Canby, General E. R. S., 245, 367. 
Cannon, Newton, 219. 
Carleton House, New York, 211. 
Carlisle, John G., 482. 
Carpenter, Frank B., 332. 
Carpenter's Hall, 10, 11. 
Carroll, Arthur E., 275. 
Cartwright, Rev. Peter, 303. 
Cass, General Lewis, mentioned, 158, 177, 

178, 268, 272, 290. 
Catherine of Russia, 45. 
Cedar Creek, battle of, 400. 
Central American affairs, 285, 286, 
Cerro Gordo, battle of, 348. 
Chalmette plantation, 147. 
Chamberlain, Daniel H., 409. 
Chamberlayne, William, 30. 
Champion Hill, battle of, 358. 
Chancellorsville, battle of, 320. 
Chandler, William E., 454. 

Zachary, 387. 
Chantrey, Sir Francis, 29. 
Chapultepec, battle of, 267, 349. 
Charles the First, 185. 
Charlotte, Queen, 61. 
Chase, Salmon P., 307, 317, 340. 
Chatham, Earl of, 8, 10, 107. 
Chattanooga, battle of, 359. 
Chegary institute, N. Y., 214. 
Cherokees and Creeks, 145, 159. 
Chesapeake and Ohio canal, 93. 
Chesapeake, United States frigate, 81, 

104. 
Chester, Thomas L., i. 
Chicago conventions, 451, 464, 499. 
Chickamauga, battle of, 432. 
Childress, Joel and Elizabeth, 231. 
Choate, Rufus, 205. 
Christian, Letitia, 196. 

Robert, 196, 214. 
Churubusco, battle of, 349. 
Cipher despatches, 414. 
Civil-service reform, 380, 406, 410, 421, 

442. 
Clarendon, Lord, 289. 



Clarke, George Rogers, 71, 333. 

Clay, General Green, 190. 

Henry, mentioned, 104, 125, 127, 128, 
152, 153. 154, 158, 177. 179. 191. 196, 
199, 201, 202, 204, 206, 22 1, 222, 224, 
225, 250, 256. 

Claypole, the printer, 24. 

Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 284, 286, 288, 291, 

456- 

John Middleton, 242. 
Clem murder case, 494. 
Cleveland, Grover, biography of, 468- 
496 ; mentioned, 35, 252, 466, 498. 

Moses, 468. 

Mrs. Frances, 496. 

Richard Falley, 468. 

Rose Elizabeth, 497. 
Clifford, Nathan, 462. 
Clinton, DeWitt, 105, 170, 171. 

George, 17, 53, 104, 170. 

Henry L., 445. 
Clintonian Federalists, 171. 

Republicans, 171. 
Cobb, Howell, 290. 
Cobbett, William, 167. 
Coke upon Lyttleton, 64. 
Cold Harbor, battle of, 322. 
Coleridge, Chief-Justice, 502. 
Coles, Miss Mary, 106. 
Colfax, Schuyler, 433. 
Commercial treaties, 453. 
Compromise measures, 268, 271, 287, 493. 
Confederate envoys, 326, 331. 

States, 307. 
Congressional nullification, 442. 
Conkling, Mrs. Margaret C, 32. 

Roscoe, 385, 405, 439, 448, 449, 452, 
462. 
Conrad, Charles M., 252. 

Robert T., 243. 
Constellation, United States frigate, 57. 
Constitution, History of the, 117. 
Constitutional amendment, 343. 
Conway, Miss Nelly, 88. 

Moncure, D., i. 
Coolidge, Thomas J., 118. 
Cooper Institute, New York, 306. 
Cooper, J. Fenimore, 166. 
Thomas Apthorpe, 214. 
Corcoran, W^illiam Wilson, 259. 
Corinth, battle of, 355. 
Cornell, Alonzo B., 416, 448, 450. 
Cornwallis, Lord, 14, 46, 71, 72, go, 454. 



568 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Corporal's guard, the, 209. 
Corwin, Thomas, 252. 
Cowen's law reports, 179. 
Cox, General Jacob D., 387. 
Craig^e mansion, 12. 
Craik, Dr. James, 17, 25, 26, 
Crampton's dismissal, 269. 
Cranch, Judge William, 251. 
Crawford, George W., 242. 

Thomas, 29. 

William H., 113, 127, 128, 149, 153, 

156, 157, 173. 198. 
Credit Mobilier, 437. 
Creek Indian treaty, 149. 
Creswell, John A. J., 387. 
Crittenden compromise, 296. 

John J., 193, 207, 252, 296. 
Crockett, Colonel Uavid, 146, t8i. 
Cromwell, Oliver, 185, 243. 
Crook, General George, 398. 
Culver, Erastus D., 444. 
Cumberland Gap, Va., 432. 

road bill, 114. 
Curtis, George Ticknor, 298. 

George William, 448. 
Gushing, Caleb, 269, 296. 
Custis, Eleanor Parke, 31, 34, 35. 

George W. P., 31, 32. 

John Parke, 9, 31, 34. 

Martha Parke, 9, 31. 

Dallas, George M., 221, 230. 
Dana, Francis, 120, 124. 

Richard H., 136. 
Dandridge, John, 9, 29. 

Mrs. Elizabeth, 244. 
Darwin, Erasmus, 63. 
Davie, William R., 57. 
Da vies, Henry E., 249. 

Rev. Samuel, 8. 
Davis, Judge David, 452. 

Henry Winter, 433. 

Jefferson, 269, 273, 307, 325, 326. 

Mrs. Sarah K., 244. 

Rev. Thomas, 26. 
Davila, Discourses on, 53. 
Dawson, Moses, 193. 
Deane, Silas, 43, 69. 
Dearborn, Henry, 79. 
Decatur, Commodore Stephen, 80. 
Decatur's apophthegm, 237. 
Declaration of Independence, 13, 69, 492. 
De Golyer contract, 437. 



Delano, Columbus, 387. 
Democratic party, 442. 
Dennison, William, 308, 430. 
Dent, Captain George, 395. 

Ellen Wrenshall, 395. 

Frederick, 395. 

Miss Julia, 395. 

Miss Julia B., 349. 
Depew, Chauncey M., 499. 
Derby, Earl of, 258. 
Devens, General Charles, 408. 
Dickinson, Charles, 143. 

college, Pennsylvania, 277. 

Daniel S., 340. 

John, 41, 42, 61. 
Dix, General John A., 296. 
Dobbin, James C, 269. 
Dodge, General Henry, 236. 
Donelson, Andrew J., 168. 

Colonel John, 139, 140, 167. 

Fort, capture of, 352. 

Mrs. Emily, 168. 

Rachel, 139. 
Douglas, Stephen A., 268, 271, 272, 273, 

289, 304, 305, 306. 
Downing, Major Jack, 167. 
Draper, Lyman C, 88. 
Dred Scott decision, 180. 
Drexel, Joseph W., 393. 
Duane, William J., 163, 164. 
Duche, Rev. Dr. Jacob, 11. 
Du Simitiere, Pierre Eugene, 29. 
Dutch government, the, 45. 

Early, General Jubal, 322, 363, 364. 
Eaton, John H., and wife, 155, 157, 168. 
Edward, Ninian W., and wife, 333, 334. 
Edwards, Dr. Jonathan, 8. 
Elberon, N. J., 440. 
Elliot's Debates, 106. 
Ellsworth, Oliver, 57, 89. 
Emancipation proclamation, 316. 
Embargo act of 1807, 82. 
Emmons, William, 180. . 
Emory, General William H., 384. 
Endicott, William C, 475. 
Enforcement act, 378, 380. 
Epaminondas, 27. 
Eppes, Francis, 82. 
John Wayles, 87. 
Era of good feeling, 116, 126. 
Ericsson's inventions, 166. 
Este, Judge David K., 194. 



INDEX. 



569 



Evarts, William M., 3, 408, 446. 
Everett, Edward, 28, 128, 133, 252, 270. 
Ewell's army corps, 361. 
Ewing, Andrew, 345. 
Thomas, 193, 205, 207. 

Fairfax of Belvoir, 4, 5, 26. 

William, 5. 
Faneuil HaU, Boston, 434, 463. 
Farrag^ut, Admiral D. G., 160, 310. 
Fauquier, Governor Francis, 63. 
Federal taxation, 90. 
Federalists, the, 128, 153. 
Fenian outbreaks, 372. 
Fessenden, William P., 308. 
Fifty-four forty, or fight, 212. 
Filibustering expeditions, 270. 
Fillmore, Millard, biography of, 246- 
261 ; mentioned, 183, 466, 490. 

Millard Powers, 259, 

Mrs. Abigail, 258. 

Mrs. Caroline C, 259. 

Nathaniel, 246, 247. 
Finch, Judge Sherman, 397. 
Fish, Hamilton, 387. 
Fishback, William P., 493. 
Fisher's Hill, battle of, 399. 
Fiske, Professor John, 28. 
Fitzhugh, Mary Lee, 33. 
Five Forks, battle of, 327, 368. 
Fleming, Miss Anna, 106. 

Sir Thomas, 106. 
Florida acquired, 126, 152. 
Floyd, General John B., 163, 290, 353. 
Folger, Charles J., 454, 470. 
Folsom, Miss Frances, 491. 
Foot's resolutions, 160. 
Foote, Admiral, 352. 
Force bill, the, 199. 
Ford, Worthington C, i, 28, 84. 
Ford's theater, Washington, 329. 
Forest Lawn cemetery, 259. 
Forrest, Edwin, 182. 

General N. B., 345, 353. 
Fort Barrancas, 147. 

Bowyer, 147. 

Crawford, 235, 236. 

Donelson, 310. 

Duquesne, 8. 

Harrison, 234. 

Henry, 310, 352. 

Mimms, 145. 

Necessity, 6. 



Fort Pitt, 8. 

Sumter, 273. 
Forward, Walter, 208. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 37, 43, 47, 48, 50, 68, 
69, 70, 72, 73- 

Square, New York, 21. 
Fraunce's Tavern, New York, 17. 
Frederick the Great, 13, 261. 
Fredericksburg, battle of, 320. 
Freeman, Edward A., 134. 
Freemasons, the, 130. 
Freesoil banner, 177. 

party, 180. 
Frehnghuysen, Frederick T., 454. 

Theodore, 175, 280. 
Fremont, General John C, 257, 2S9, 290, 

312, 430, 446. 
French Directory, the, 142. 

indemnity, 130. 

in Mexico, 326. 

spoliation claims, 165, 462. 

West Indies, 55. 
Frothingham, Rev. N. L., 133. 
Fry, Colonel Joshua, 6. 

Joseph R., 243. 
Frye, William, 405. 
Fug^itive slave law, 253, 268. 
Fuller, Chief-Justice, 482. 

Gag rule in Congress, 131, 132. 
Gaines, General Edmund P., 235, 238. 
Gallatin, Albert, 79, 125, 136, 170. 
Gambier, Lord, 125. 
Gardiner, Miss Julia, 214, 215. 
Gardiners of Gardiner's island, 214. 
Gardner, Henry G., 447. 
Garfield, Abram, and wife, 426. 
Garfield, James Abram, biography cf, 
426-443 ; mentioned, 261, 334, 392, 
421, 451, 465, 498. 

Mrs. Lucretia R., 443. 
Garland, Augustus H., 348, 475. 

Mrs. Mary S., 35. 
Garnett, Muscoe R. H., 35. 
Garrison, William Lloyd, 445. 
Gates, General Horatio, 15, 17. 
Gay, Sidney Howard, 106. 
Geauga seminary, 427. 
Genet, Edmund Charles, 24, 96, 121. 
Geneva arbitration, the, 135. 
Gentleman's Magazine, the, 69. 
Gentr)% Meredith P., 338. 
George the Third, 44, 45, 50, 61. 



570 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Germantown, battle of, 14. 
Gerry, Elbridg^e, 56, 57. 
Gettysburg, battle of, 320. 
Gibraltar, surrender of, 48. 
Giddings, Joshua R., 432, 442. 
Giles, William B., 196, 202. 
Gilman, Daniel C, 118. 
Goose Nest Prairie, 302. 
Gordon, General John B., 424. 
Gouverneur, Samuel L., 117. 
Graham, William A., 252. 
Granger, Francis, 193, 207. 

Gideon, 79. 
Grant Club, New York, 447. 

Frederick D., 395, 396. 

Jesse R., 347. 

Monument, 394. 

Mrs. Julia D., 395. 
Grant, Ulysses Simpson, biography of, 
347-394 ; mentioned, 155, 310, 320, 
321, 334, 341, 396, 400, 403, 416, 438, 
447- 
Gray, Judge Horace, 462. 
Grayson, William, 99, 109, no. 
Greeley, Horace, 135, 326, 382. 

Lieutenant A. W., 461. 
Green, General Duff, 155, 158. 
Greenough, Horatio, 29. 
Gresham, Walter Q., 454, 482. 
Greytown bombarded, 269. 
Gridley, Jeremiah, 38. 
Grierson's raid, 359. 
Grinnell Land, 461. 
Grover, Rev. Stephen, 468. 
Grund, Francis J., 180. 
Grundy, Felix, 217, 283. 
Gun-foundry board, 459. 
Guthrie, James, 269. 

Haines's Bluff, battle of, 355. 
Hale, Edward Everett, 28. 

John P., 262, 265. 

Sir Matthew, 2, 64. 
Hall, Nathan K., 249, 252. 
Halleck, Fitz-Greene, 182, 183. 

General Henry W., 311, 352, 354. 
Hanier, Thomas L., 347. 
Hamilton, Alexander, 22, 23, 24, 25, 53, 
54, 55, 58, 70, 74, 75, 76, 78, 79, 89, 
94, 95, 97, 98, no, 116, 260. 
Hamiltonian Federalism, 178. 
Hammond, George, 76. 
Hampden bidney college, 186. 



Hampton Roads, 331. 

General Wade, 409, 410. 
Hancock, John, 39. 

General Wiufield S., 363, 373, 374, 

439- 
Harris, Isham G., 345. 

Senator Ira, 329. 
Harrison, Benjamin, of Virginia, 68, 69, 

185, 186, 492. 

Harrison, Benjamin, biography of, 498- 
512 ; mentioned, 396, 479, 482. 

Colonel John, 185. 

gold medal, 191. 

John Scott, 193, 194, 498. 

Landing, Va., 310. 

Mrs. Anna, 194. 

Mrs. Caroline L., 512. 

the Regicide, 498. 
Harrison, William Henry, biography 
of, 185-193 ; mentioned, 175, 177, 202, 
204, 207, 220, 283, 334. 
Hartranft, General John T., 405. 
Harvard university, 36, 133, 136. 
Hatton, Frank, 454. 
Haven, Solomon G., 249. 
Hawaiian Islands, 482. 
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 166, 262, 275. 
Hayes, Rutherford B., biography of, 
379-425 ; mentioned, 387, 448, 467. 

Mrs. Lucy Ware, 425. 
Hayne, Robert T., 160. 
Healy, George P. A., 275, 332. 
Hendricks, Thomas A., 472, 494, 495, 

498. 
Henry, James B., 286. 

Patrick, 10, 31, 64, 67, 68, 74, 99, 106, 

1 86, 333. 
Herbert, Hilary A., 482. 
Hermitage, the, 137, 166. 
Herndon, Ellen Lewis, 464. 

Captain William L., 464. 
Hessians and British, 70. 
Hoar, Ebenezer, 337. 

George F., 435. 
Hoes, Hannah and Mary, 169. 
Hoffman, Miss Matilda, 183. 

Ogden, 446. 
Holland, William H.. 180. 
Hollywood Cemetery, 117, 213, 215. 
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 166. 
Holy Alliance, the, 147. 
Holt, Judge Joseph, 297. 
Hone, Mayor Philip, 84. 



INDEX. 



571 



Hood, General John B., 322, 365. 
Hooker, General Joseph, 320. 
Hopkins, General, 234. 

President, 429. 
Horseshoe Bend, 145. 
Houdon, Jean Antoine, 29. 
Houston, General Samuel, 146. 
Howard, General Oliver O., 243. 
Howe, Lord William, 42. 

Timothy O., 454. 
Howells, William D., 333, 425. 
Hubbard, Samuel D., 252. 
Hull and Decatur, 125. 

Captain Isaac, 105, 148. 

General William, 189. 
Hulseman letter, the, 254. 
Humphrey, General David, 18. 
Hunker faction, the, 177. 
Hunt, Judge Ward, 462. 

William H., 439. 
Hunter, General David, 313, 362, 363. 
Hutchinson, Elizabeth, 137. 

Governor, 39, 40. 

Inaugural addresses, 193. 
Indian legislation, 462. 

Territory, 475, 476. 
Inflation bill, the, 385. 
Ingham, Samuel D., 155. 
Inman, Henry, 184. 
Insolvent laws, 174. 
Instructions, draft of, 66. 
Irving, Washington, 6, 17, 34, 166, 174, 

180, 183, 247. 
Italian republics, 51. 

Jackson, Andrew, biography of, 137- 
167 ; mentioned, 105, 126, 127, 128, 
129, 130, 131, 170, 191, 198, 200, 201, 
' 202, 204, 213, 217, 218, 263, 279, 280, 
282, 283, 337. 
Hugh, 137. 
Isaac R., 193. 

Mrs. Rachel, 141, 167, 168. 
Mrs. Sarah T., 168. 
Thomas J., 245. 
Jacksonians, 175, 199. 
James, Thomas L., 416, 439, 452. 
Japanese treaty, the, 254. 
Jay, John, 23, 47, 49, 53, 55, 58, 73, 78, 

90, 97, 98, no. 
Jay's English treaty, 77, loi, 102, 142, 
187. 



Jefferson, Thomas, biography of, 62- 
85 ; mentioned, 22, 23, 37, 50, 52, 54, 
58, 59, 60, 86, 87, loi, 102, 107, 108, 
112, 114, 115, 117, 124, 142, 169, 176, 
180, 187, 195, 291, T,2;>,- 
Lucy Elizabeth, 86. 
Mary and Martha, 74, 86. 
Peter, 62. 
portraits, 85. 
Jewell, Marshall, 387. 
Johnson, Andrew, biography of, 336- 
346 ; mentioned, 135, 317, 372, 374,435. 
Louisa, 121. 
Thomas, 121. 
Mrs. Andrew, 345. 
Reverdy, 242. 
Richard M., 202, 220. 
Sarah Bush, 301. 
Johnson's law reports, 179. 
Johnston, Albert Sidney, 310, 353, 354. 
Harriet L., 299. 
Henry E., 299. 

Joseph E., 309, 322, 327, 341, 357, 360, 
361, 365, 367. 370. 
Jones, James C., 220. 
John P., 385. 
Joseph, 167. 
Juarez, President, 318. 
Jumonville, death of, 6. 

Kansas and Nebraska, 270, 271, 272, 338. 

Kendall, Amos, 155, 156, 157, 158, 163. 

Kennedy, John P., 252. 

Kent, James, 172. 

Kenyon college, Ohio, 397, 424. 

Keokuk, Indian chief, 236. 

Key, David M., 408. 

King, Rufus, 97, 113, 172, 180. 

King's Mountain, battle of, 147. 

Kirkland, Mrs. Caroline M., 28. 

Kirkwood, Thomas J., 439. 

Kitchen cabinet, the, 155, 158, 161. 

Knox, General Henry, 15, 22, 25, 74, 75, 

James and Samuel, 216. 
Kortright, Elizabeth and Lawrence, 117, 

118. 
Kosciuszko, Thaddeus, 79. 
Kossuth, General Louis, 254. 
Koszta, Martin, 269. 

Lady Franklin bay, 461. 
Lafayette, General, 74, 75, 114, 118. 
Madame, 118. 



572 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



La Force, prison of, ii8. 
Lake of the Woods, io8. 
Lamar, Lucius Q. C, 475. 
Lamont, Daniel S., 482. 
Lane, Elliott T., 299. 

Miss Harriet, 286, 289. 
Laurens Court-House, 336. 

Henry, 45. 
La Vengeance, frigate, 56. 
Lear, Colonel Tobias, 26. 
Lee, Fitzhugh, 527. 

Francis Lightfoot, 70. 

General Robert E., 33, 311, 314, 322, 
326, 341. 361, 366, 369, 370, 371. 

Henry, of Massachusetts, 163. 

Mrs. Robert E., 276. 

Richard Henry, 26, 42, 68, 99, 110, 185. 
Legare, Hugh S., 208, 211. 
Leigh, Benjamin Watkins, 203. 
Lemmon, Jonathan, 445. 
Lenox Library, 24. 
Leonard, Daniel, 40. 
Leopard and Chesapeake, 81, 104, 123. 
Lewis, Andrew, 34. 

Captain George, 34. 

Edward P. C, 35. 

Fielding, 33. 

Lawrence, XS^ 34. 35- 

Morgan, 169. 

William B., 152, 155, 157. 
Lexington, battle of, 16. 
Leyden, ministry of, 120. 
Lincoln, Abraham, biography of, 303- 
335; mentioned, 132, 134, 161, 178, 
180, 255, 258, 261, 290, 293, 294, 297, 
339. 367. 370, 431. 442, 443. 460. 

John, 300. 

Levi, 79. 

Mordecai, 300. 

Mrs. Mary, 333, 334. 

Park, Chicago, 394. 

Robert T., 332, 334, 439, 454. 

Samuel, 300. 

Thomas, 301. 

William W., 332, 334. 
Lindenwald, 177, 178, 183. 
L'Insurgente, frigate, 57. 
Lippincott's Magazine, 135. 
Literary vandalism, 259, 260, 
Little Belt, sloop of war, 104, 
Livingston, Edward, 158, 160. 

Edward P., 170. 

Robert R., 20, 68, 112, 175. 



Longacre, James B., 104. 
Longfellow, Henry W., 12, 166, 262, 397. 
Long Island, battle of, 13. 
Longstreet, General James, 359, 360. 
Lossing, Benson J., 2, 13, 28, 32, 33. 
Louisiana difficulties, 384. 
Loyal legion, order of, 424. 
Luzerne, Chevalier de la, 48. 

McCardle, Miss Eliza, 336, 345. 

McCarte mansion, 148. 

McCay, Spruce, 138. 

McClellan, General George B., 309, 311, 

323, 324- 
McClelland, Robert, 269. 
McCloskey, Cardinal, 458. 
McCrary, George, 408. 
McCulloch, Hugh, 454. 
McDowell, General Irwin, 309. 
McDuffie, George, 219. 
McKiNLEY, William, biography of, 513- 

544- 

Mrs. Ida Saxton, 544. 

Scotch ancestry, 513. 
McLane, Louis, 158, 163. 
McLean, John, 208. 

House, Virginia, 369. 
McMurdo, John, 195. 
McNeil, General John H., 274. 
Macaulay, Lord, 28. 
Mackenzie, William L., 181, 
Maclay, William, 20. 
Macomb, General Alexander, 181. 
MacVeagh, Wayne, 439. 
Madison, Ambrose, 88. 

and Jefferson, 136. 

Captain Isaac, 88. 
Madison, James, biography of, 88, 106; 
mentioned, 14, 24, 65, 73, 79, 81, 82, 
109, 113, 115, 116, 117, 170, 187, 189, 
191, 195. 

Mrs. Dolly, 184. 
Madison Square Garden, 480. 
Mahone, Senator, 452. 
Malvern Hill, battle of, 310. 
Mangum, Willie P., 175, 202. 
Manning, Daniel, 475. 
Marble cemetery, New York, 117. 
Marbois, Count F. Barbe-, 81, 112. 
Marcellus, a signature, 121. 
Marcy, William L., 119, 156, 222, 268, 269. 
Marshall, General Humphrey, 431. 

Chief -Justice, 26, 28, 56, 58, 99, 109, 174. 



INDEX. 



573 



Marshall's Life of Washington, 73, 76. 
Martin, Rev. Thomas, 88. 
Mason and Dixon's line, 127, 273. 
Mason, George, 70, 94, 99, 109. 

James M,, 318. 

John Y., 270. 
Mason and Slidell, 134. 
Massachusetts cavalry, 135. 

Historical Society, 15. 
Matthews, Senator, 435. 
Maximilian, Emperor, 292, 318. 
Mayo, Robert, 167. 
Mead, Larkin G., sculptor, 329. 
Meade, General George G., 320, 360, 365. 
Meadows, Great, battle of, 6, 7. 
Meikleham, Mrs. S. R., 87. 
Mercer, Colonel Hugh, 107. 
Merchant marine, the, 379. 
Meredith, William M., 242. 
Merritt, General Edwin A., 416, 449,450. 
Mexican boundary, 126, 435. 

treaty of 1883, 455. 
Milan decrees, the, 104, 122. 
Miller, William H. H., 439. 
Millions for defence, 56. 
Missionary Ridge, battle of, 321. 
Mississippi valley, the, 48, 90. 
Missouri compromise, the, 127, 198, 212, 

293- 
Mobile evacuated, 371. 
Molino del Rey, battle of, 267, 349. 
Monmouth, battle of, 14. 
Monroe, Colonel James, 118. 

doctrine, the, 114, 115, 127, 147, 174, 
285, 292, 326, 378, 456, 475. 

Mrs. Elizabeth, 118. 
Monroe, James, biography of, 107-118; 
mentioned, 55, 81, 99, 150, 171, 172, 
186, 213, 278, 414. 

Spence, 107. 
Montgomery, Henry, 193. 
Monticello, Va., 64, 66, 67, 70, 71, 72, 74, 

82, 83. 
Montpelier, Va., 102, 104. 
Morgan, General John, 399. 

Governor Edwin D., 446, 447, 454, 

William, 130. 
Mormon polygamy, 475, 476. 
Morrill, Lot M., 387. 
Morris, Gouverneur, 55, 72, 93, no. 

Robert, 186. 
Morse and Henry, 442. 

John T., Jr., 60, 84, 133. 



Morse, Mrs. S. F. B., 2. 
Morton, J. Sterling, 482. 

Oliver P., 405, 496. 
Mosquito Indians, 285, 286. 
Mount McGregor, 393. 
Mount Vernon, 7, 9, 10, 17, 19, 35, 26, 28, 

29. 31, 35- 
Moustier, Count, quoted, 20. 
Mulligan, Colonel James, 399. 
Murphy, Colonel, dismissed, 355, 
Murray, William Vans, 57. 

Napoleon, Emperor, 57, 104, 122, 123, 

143. 147- 

the Third, 134, 292, 318. 
Nashville, battle of, 323, 365, 497. 
National United States banks, 458. 

debt reduced, 387. 

republicans, 201, 202. 
Nebraska bill, the, 305. 
Nelson, General Thomas, 72. 
Nesselrode, Count, 279. 
New England governments, 69. 
New Orleans, battle of, 147. 
New Orleans expedition, 463. 
New York city riots, 319. 
New York Historical Society, 85. 
Newfoundland fisheries, 44, 48. 
Nicholas, Colonel W. C, 78. 

of Russia, 280. 
Nichols, Francis T., 409, 410. 
Nicholson, A. O. P., 177, 231. 
Nickajack expedition, 139. 
Nicola, Colonel Lewis, 14. 
Nicolay, John G., j,t,2,. 
North, Lord, government of, 44, 45, 
Northwest Territory, 187. 
Norton, Rev. John, 60. 
Notes on Virginia, 73. 

O'Conor, Charles, 446. 
Offensive partisanship, 476. 
Offutt, Denton, 302. 
Okechobee, battle of, 237. 
Old Hickory, 144, 166. 
Old Point Comfort, 8\. 
Olney, Richard, 482. 
Omnibus bill, the, 251. 
Ord, General E. O. C, 365. 
Oregon question, the, 210, 224. 
Orne, Colonel, 7. 
Orth, Godlove S., 497. 
Ostend manifesto, the, 270. 



574 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Oswald, Richard, 47. 

Otis, James, eloquence of, 37, 38. 

Overton, Judge Thomas, 139, 143, 150. 

Page, WilHam, 332. 
Paine, Judge Elijah, 445. 
Paine's Rights of Man, 75, 

Thomas, yg, 121, 137. 
Pakenham, Sir Edward, 147. 
Palfrey, John G., 135. 
Palmerston, Lord, 134. 
Palo Alto, battle of, 244, 348. 
Panic of 1837, 165. 
Panthemont, convent of, 87, 
Parker, Edmund, 262. 

General Ely S., 377. 
Parsons, Theophilus, 121. 
Parton, James, 84, 137, 167. 
Patterson, David T., 346. 

Mrs. Martha, 346. 
Paulding, James Kirke, 28, 183. 
Payne, John, 106. 

Miss Dorothy, 106. 
Peace Congress, the, 1882, 455. 
Peale, Charles Wilson, 29, 31. 

Rembrandt, 29, 85. 
Pemberton, General John C, 320, 357. 
Pendleton, Edmund, 10, 31, 68, 99. 

George H., 4O2, 434. 
Perkins, Charles C, 3, 29. 
Perry's Japanese treaty, 269. 
Peter the Great, 261. 
Petersburg evacuated, 327, 328. 
Philippe, Louis, 281. 
Phillips, Captain John, 246. 

Exeter academy, 334. 
Pickens, Governor, 296. 
Pickering, Thomas, iii, 121. 
Pierce, Benjamin, 262. 
Pierce, Franklin, biography of, 262- 
276; mentioned, 178, 287, 289. 

Mrs. Jane A., 275. 
Pierrepont, Edwards, 387. 
Pierson, Hamilton W., 85. 
Pillow, Gideon J., 217, 266, 353. 
Pinckney, Charles C, 53, 55, 58, 78, 104, 
III. 
Thomas, 53, 54. 
Pinkney, William, 112. 
Pitt, William, 89. 
Piatt, Thomas C, 439, 452. 
Pleasant Hill, battle of, 245. 
Pocahontcis of Virginia, 492. 



Pocket veto, 158. 
Polk, Colonel Thomas, 216. 
Polk, James Knox, biography of, 216- 
232; mentioned, 177, 211, 250, 264, 
284, 337- 

Mrs. Sarah C, 231, 232. 

Samuel, 216. 
Pollock or Polk, Robert, 216. 
Polygamy in Utah, 420, 462. 
Ponca Indians, 422. 
Pontiac, Indian chief, 144. 
Pope, General John, 311, 350, 367. 
Pope's Creek, Va., i, 3. 
Popular sovereignty, 305. 
Port Hudson surrendered, 358. 
Porter, Admiral David, 365, 367. 

General Fitz-John, 310, 392, 460. 
Postage, reduction of, 461. 
Potter, Clarkson N., 414, 
Prentiss. Sergeant S., 262. 
Prescott, William H., 166. 
President, United States frigate, 104. 
Presidential nicknames, 182. 
Preston, Captain, 39. 

W. Ballard, 242. 

William C, 184, 209. 
Price, General Sterling, 351. 
Priestly, Dr. Joseph, 79. 
Prince of Wales, 299, 389. 
Prince, John, 182. 

L. Bradford, 449. 
Princeton College, 33. 
Princeton, United States steamer, 214. 
Proctor, Colonel Henry, 189. 
Prophet, the Indian, 188. 
Public debt, the, 379, 420. 
Publicola, a signature, 121. 
Puritan and Blackleg, 128. 
Putnam, General Israel, 15. 

Quincy, John, 120. 
Josiah, 39, 133. 

Railway strikes, 411, 489, 

Raleigh tavern, the, 66. 

Ramsay, David, 28. 

Randall, Henry S., 84. 

Randolph, Edmund, 74, 94, 95, 109, iji. 

I?ham, 62. 

John, 128, 136, 154, 199. 

Mrs. Maria, 87. 

Sarah N., 85, 87. 

Thomas J., 85. 



INDEX. 



575 



Randolph, Thomas M., 74, 86. 
Ransom, Colonel, 265. 
Rathbone, Major Henry R., 329. 
Rawlings, John A., 387. 
Raymond, Henry J., 340. 
Red river expedition, 360. 
Reed, William B., 293. 
Reeder, Andrew H., 272. 
Religious Freedom act, 70. 
Resaca de la Palma, 244, 348. 
Resumption act, 415. 
Richardson, William M., 387. 
Richmond captured, 327. 

Inquirer, 198, 212. 

evacuated, 368. 
Riverside park. New York, 394. 
Rives, William C, 106, 203, 205, 207. 
Robards, Captain Lewis, 139, 140, 141, 

167. 
Robertson, Donald, 88. 

General, 139. 

William H., 439, 452. 
Robeson, George M., 387. 
Robinson, Wyndham, 492. 
Rogers, Randolph, 332. 

William K., 398. 
Rolfe. John, Gentleman, 492. 
Roosevelt, Theodore, 449, 545-555- 
Rosecrans, General W. S.. 355, 359, 398, 

433- 
Rudolph, Miss Lucretia, 443. 
Rupert of debate, 258. 
Rutledge, John, 11, 43, 97. 
Russell, Jonathan, 125. 
Lord John, 319. 

Sabine Cross-Roads, battle of, 245. 
St. Augustine, seizure of, 151. 
St. Clair, General Arthur, 186. 
St. Eustatius, plunder of, 46. 
St. Gaudens, Augustus, 332. 
St. John, John P., 473. 
St. John's church, 67. 

college, 33. 
Salisbury, Marquis of, 503. 
Sanford, Nathan. 172. 
Santa Anna, General, 240, 266. 
Santo Domingo treaty, 378, 455. 
Sartoris, Mrs. Algernon, 395. 
Saviour of society, 163. 
Schell, Augustus, 450. 
Schley, Captain W. S.,461. 
Schofield, General John M., 387, 467. 



Schouler, James, 116, 117, 167. 
Schurz, General Carl, 408. 
Scott, Miss Caroline L., 498, 512. 

John W., 506. 

General Winfield, 118, 149, 160, 181, 
182, 236, 237, 240, 242, 266, 268, 270, 
288, 294, 298. , 
Scylla and Charybdis, 55. 
Seminole Indians, 145, 181. 
Semple, Mrs. Letitia, 214. 
Seneca Indians, i. 
Seven Pines, battle of, 310. 
Sevier, General John, 143. 
Sewall, Jonathan, 38. 
Seward, William H., 132, 306, 307, 317, 

331. 341. 
Seymour, Horatio, 375, 447. 
Sharpe, Governor, 7. 
Shaw, Major, quoted, 15. 
Shays's rebellion, 18. 
Sheffield, Lord, 50. 
Shelbume, Lord, 47. 
Shelby, Governor William, 191. 
Shepard, Edward M., 181. 

Rev. Thomas, 60. 
Sheridan, General Philip H., 322, 323, 

361, 362, 364, 366, 368, 371, 373, 384, 

457. 467. 476, 497- 
Sherman, General William T., 3, 29, 322, 
360, 362, 363, 366, 370, 396. 

Roger, 68. 

Senator John, 403, 407, 435, 438, 449, 
499. 
Sherwood Forest, 212, 213, 215. 
Shields, General James, 266, 304. 
Shiloh, battle of, 148, 310, 353, 354. 
Shirley, Governor, 8. 
Sigel, General Franz, 360, 361. 
Silver coinage, 413, 414, 458, 480, 486, 504. 
Simpson, Miss Hannah, 347. 
Singleton, Richard, 184. 
Skelton, Bathurst, 86. 

Mrs. Martha, 66, 86. 
Slater education fund, 424. 
Slidell, John, 284, 318. 
Small, Dr. William, 63. 
Smith, Caleb B. , 307. 

General E. Kirby, 327, 371. 

Gerrit, 445. 

Hoke, of Georgia, 482. 

Miss Abigail, 37. 

Richard, 243. 

Robert, 79. 



576 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Smith, William, 60, 202, 207. 
Soule, Pierre, 270. 
Southard, William L., 207, 280. 
South Mountain, battle of, 311. 
Spanish reciprocity, 475. 
Sparks, Dr. Jared, 2, 9, 28. 
Spartan firmness, 170. 
Specie payments, 385, 420. 
Speed, James, 308. 
Spencer, Ambrose, 172. 

John C, 249. 
Spoils system, 129, 156. 
Squatter sovereignty, 293. 
Stalwart Republicans, 440. 
Stanford university, 505. 
Stanton, Edwin M., 297, 308, 344. 
Stark, Colonel John, 140. 
State department, 503, 504. 

rights, 202. 

sovereignty, 436. 
Stevens, Edwin A., 35. 
Stevenson, Andrew, 184. 
Stewart, Alexander T., 387. 
Stirhng, Earl of, 107. 
Stone, Uriah, pioneer, 444. 
Stoneman, General George S., 367. 
Stowe, Mrs. Harriet B., 333. 

Professor Calvin E., 262. 
Story, Judge Joseph, 397. 
Strikes in Illinois, 489. 
Stuart, Alexander H. H., 242, 252, 256. 

General J. E. B., 322. 

Gilbert, 29, 35, 60, 105, 118. 

John T., 303. 
Sullivan, General, 42. 
Sumner, William G., 167. 
Sumter, Fort, attack on, 295, 297. 

General, 137. 
Swing, Professor David, 493. 
Symmes, Miss Anna, 187. 

John Cleves, 187. 

Taft, Judge Alonzo, 387, 404. 

Talcott, General S. V., 447. 

Talleyrand, Marquis, 46, 56, 57, 102, 112. 

Talmadge, Nathaniel P., 209. 

Taney, Roger B., 158, 164. 

Tariff biU, 1884, 488. 

of abominations, 159. 

reform, 481. 
Tayloe, Colonel Ogle, 257. 
Taylor, Colonel Richard, 333. 

General Richard, 244, 245. 



Taylor, Hancock, 233, 244. 
James, 

Mrs. Margaret, 243. 
Taylor Zachary, 233-245 ; mentioned, 

155, 178, 222, 250, 251, 304, 348. 
Tazewell, Littleton W., 198. 
Tecumseh, 144, 145, 187, 188, 189. 
Teller, Henry M., 454. 
Tennessee legislature, 153. 
Tenure-of-office bill, 374. 
Terry, General Alfred H., 365. 
Thames, battle of the, 190, 191. 
Thomas, General George H., 323, 359, 
365, 431 > 432, 442, 443- 

General Lorenzo, 344. 
Thompson, Colonel Jeff., 351. 

Jacob, 290. 

Richard W., 408. 
Thompson's Presidents, 261. 
Thurman, Allen G., 401. 
Tilden, Samuel J., 245, 386, 406, 414. 
Timberlake, Mrs., 157. 
Tippecanoe, battle of, 189, 234. 
Todd, John, 333. 

Mrs. Dorothy P., loi, 106. 

Miss Mary, 332. 

Robert S., 333, 334. 
Tompkins, Daniel D., 113, 169, 170. 
Topeka convention, 293. 
Toucey, Isaac, 290. 
Trumbell, John, 29. 

Lyman, 304. 
Truxton, Captain, 57. 
Tucker, George P., 118. 

Professor George, 84. 
Twiggs, Colonel David E., 150. 
Tyler, Judge John, 94, 99, 195. 
Tyler, John, 195-213 ; mentioned, 192, 
222, 283. 

Lyon Gardiner, 198, 213, 215. 

Mrs. Julia Gardiner, 213-214. 

Mrs. Letitia, 214. 

Mrs. Priscilla, 214. 
Tyner, James A., 387. 

Underwood, Judge, 372. 
Union Club, New York, 119. 

Pacific railway, 136, 437. 
United States bank, 161, 162, 170, 195, 
200, 203, 205. 

navy, 461. 
University of New York, 171. 
Upham, Charles W., 28. 



INDEX. 



577 



Upshur, Abel Parker, 208. 
Usher, John Palmer, 308. 
Utah commission, 462. 

Valentia, General, 266. 

Vallandigham, Clement L., 319, 323. 

Valley Forge, sufferings of, 14. 

Van Alen, James J., i6g. 

Van Buren, Abraham, i6g, 181, 182, 183. 

John, 181, 182. 
Van Buren, Martin, biography of, 169- 
181 ; mentioned, 134, 155, 157, 162, 
166, 192, 199, 200, 203, 205, 211, 219, 
221, 283. 

Mrs. Angelica, 184. 

Mrs. Hannah, 181. 
Vanderbilt, William H., 394. 
Vanderlyn, John, 118. 
Van Ness, William P., 169, 183. 
Van Vechten, Abraham, 171. 
Vassall mansion, the, 12. 
Vauguyon, Due de la, 45, 46. 
Vergennes, Count, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 73. 
Vernon, Admiral, 4. 
Vicksburg, siege of, 320, 356, 358. 
Victoria, Queen, 3S9. 
Vilas, William T., 475. 
Virgil, the poet, 69. 
Virginia dynasty, the, 170. ^ 

Jefferson's, 62, 63. 

University Magazine, 215. 

University of, 35. 
Virginius outrage, the, 383. 
Volk, Leonard W., 332. 
Volney, Count C. F., 79. 
Von Hoist, Herman E., 167, 176, 261. 
Voorhees, Senator, 495. 

Waite, Chief-Justice, 452, 466, 475. 
Waldo, Samuel P., 117. 
Wales, Prince of, 299, 389. 
Walker, Robert J., 222. 

William, 269. 
Wallace, General Lewis, 261, 512. 
War Democrats, 166. 
War of 1S12, the, 104. 
Ward, John Q. A., 443. 
Warren, General Gouverneur K. , 364. 

General Joseph, 39. 
Washburne, Elihu B., 376, 3S7, 561. 
Washington, Andrew, i. 

Augustine, 3. 

Bushrod, 28. 



Washington, capture of, 147. 
Washington, Elizabeth, 33. 
Washington, George, biography of, 
1-29 ; mentioned, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 
35, 41, 52, 68, 74, 76, 83, 93, 97, 101, 
106, 107, 142. 

Henry A., 84. 

John, I. 

Lawrence, 4, 5. 

Levi, 158. 

Mrs. Martha, 29, 31, 32, 35. 

Mrs. Mary, 2, 34. 
Washington treaty, 3S1, 457. 
Waters, Henry F., i. 
Wayles, John, 66, 86. 

Martha, 86. 
Wayne, General Anthony, 186. 
Waxham settlement, 137. 
Webb, Miss Lucy Ware, 425. 
Webster, Daniel, 85, 117, 133, 142, i6o, 
175, 193, 201, 202, 205, 207, 2c8, 210, 
2521 253, 256, 260, 268, 284, 436. 

Historical society, 463. 
Weed, Thurlow, 288. 
Weems, Mason L., 28. 
Welles, Gideon, 307, 561. 
WeUington, Duke of, 147, 155, 157. 
Wentworth, John, 36, 41. 
Wertmuller, Adolph U., 29. 
Western Reserve, the, 426. 
West India trade, 174. 
Westminster Abbey, London, 544. 
West Point military academy, 347, 431, 

517- 
West Virginia engagements, 514. 
Wheatland, Pa., 2S6, 29S, 299. 
Wheeler, General Joseph, 536. 
Whisky frauds, 3S6. 
White, Andrew D., 486. 
White House, the, 86, 142, 215, 276, 346, 

425. 467, 491. 545- 
White, Hugh L., 175, 202, 219, 337. 
Whitney, William C, 475, 562. 
Whittier, John G., 166. 
Whittle, J. Lowr}^, 496. 
Wickliffe, Charles S., 208. 
Wikoff Camp, Long Island, 537. 
Wilderness, battle of, 322, 361, 467. 
VVileland's Oberon, 121. 
Wiley, General Aquila, 517. 
Wilkins, William, 558. 
William and Mary college, 5, 62, 63, 71, 

107, 195, 198, 215. 



578 



LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Williams college, 428, 429. 
Williams, George H., 387, 561. 

Ramon O., 485. 
Wilmot proviso, 172, 177, 178, 223, 227. 
Wilson, James, 526, 563. 

James Grant, 261, 350, 359, 394. 

James M., 437. 

William L., 563. 
Winchester, battle of, 364, 369, 515. 
Winchester, General James, iSS, 189. 
Windom, William, 439, 454, 562. 
Windsor Castle, England, 3S9. 
" Winning of the West, The," 550, 554. 
Winthrop, John, statue, 442. 
Wirt, William, 113, 162, 163, 199. 
Wise, Henry A., 213. 
Wister, Owen, author Roosevelt article, 

545- 
Wolcott, Oliver, 557. 
Woodbury, Dr. Robert, 244. 
Levi, 262, 264, 559. 



Woodford, Stewart L., 527, 530-534. 
Wood, General Leonard, 551. 
Wood tariff bill, 517. 
Woolly, John G., 563. 
Worcester, Professor Dean C, 539. 
Worth, General William J., 266, 348. 
Wright, Silas, 250, 264. 
Wythe, George, 63, 64, 70, 99. 

X. Y. Z. despatches, 56, 57, 102. 

Yates, Governor Richard, 350. 
York, Sir Joseph, 46. 
Yorktown, battle of, 14. 

monument, 454. 

surrender of, 454. 
Young, John Russell, 394. 
Yucatan's appeal, 284. 
Yucon river, Alaska, 529. 

Zollicoffer, General F. K., killed, 431. 



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kind with which we are acquainted." — Boston Saturday Evening Gazette. 



/J CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF UNIVERSAL 
HISTORY. Extending from the Earliest Times to the Year 1892. 
For the Use of Students, Teachers, and Readers. By Louis Heilprin. 
i2mo. 200 pages. Cloth, $1.25. 

This is one of the three sections comprised in Heilprin's " Historical Refer- 
ence-Book," bound separately for convenience of those who may not require 
the entire volume. Specimen pages sent on request. 



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By WILLIAM Z. RIPLEY, Ph.D. 
The Races of Europe. 

A Sociological Study. By William Z. Ripley, Ph. D., Assist- 
ant Professor of Sociology, Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology ; Lecturer in Anthropology at Columbia University, in 
the City of New York. Crown 8vo, cloth ; 650 pages, with 
85 Maps and 2}^ Portrait Types. With a Supplementary 
Bibliography of nearly 2,000 Titles, separately bound in cloth, 
issued by the Boston Public Library ; 178 pages. Price, $6.00. 

"One of the most fascinating sociological and anthropo- 
logical studies that have been offered of late to the public. 
. . . The book is one to be studied with care, and it is a 
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dents. " — Chicago Evening Post. 

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care, patience, skill, and knowledge with which it is planned, 
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MCMASTER^S FIFTH VOLUME. 

History of the People of the United 
States. 

By Prof. John Bach McMaster. Vol. V. 8vo. 
Cloth, with Maps, $2.50. 

The fifth volume of Prof. J. B. McMaster's " His- 
tory of the People of the United States" will cover 
the time of the administrations of John Quincy Adams 
and Andrew Jackson, and will describe the develop- 
ment of the democratic spirit, the manifestations 
of new interest in social problems, and the various 
conditions and plans presented between 1825 and 
1837. To a large extent the intimate phases of the 
subjects which are treated have received scant atten- 
tion heretofore. A peculiar interest attaches to the 
various banking and financial experiments proposed 
and adopted at that time, to the humanitarian and 
socialistic movements, the improvements in the con- 
ditions of city life, to the author's full presentation of 
the literary activity of the country, and his treatment 
of the relations of the East and West. Many of 
these subjects have necessitated years of first-hand in- 
vestigations, and are now treated adequately for the 
first time. 

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v^, 



By EDGAR STANTON MACLAY, A. M. 



A History of the United States Navy. (1775 
to 1902.) — New and Revised edition. 

In three volumes, the new volume containing an Account of the 
Navy since the Civil War, with a history of the Spanish-American 
War revised to the date of this edition, and an Account of naval 
operations in the Philippines, etc. Technical Revision of the 
first two volumes by Lieutenant Roy C. Smith, U. S. N. Illus- 
trated. 8vo. Cloth, $3.00 net per volume ; postage, 26 cents per 
volume additional. 

In the new edition of Volume III, which is now ready for publication, the author 
brings his History of the Navy down to the present time. In the prefaces of the 
volumes of this history the author has expressed and emphasized his desire for sug- 
gestions, new information, and corrections which might be utililized in perfecting his 
work. He has, therefore, carefully studied the evidence brought out at the recent 
Schley Court of Inquiry, and while the findings of that Court were for the most part 
in accordance with the results of his own historical investigations, he has modified 
certain portions of his narrative. Whatever opinions may be held regarding any 
phases of our recent naval history, the fact remains that the industry, care, and thor- 
oughness, which were unanimously praised by newspaper reviewers and experts in the 
case of the first two volumes, have been sedulously applied to the preparation of this 
new edition of the third volume. 

A History of American Privateers^ 

Uniform with "A History of the United States Navy." Illus- 
trated. 8vo. Cloth, $3.00 net; postage, 24 centa additional. 

After several years of research the distinguished historian of American sea power 
presents the first comprehensive account of one of the most picturesque and absorb- 
ing phases of our maritmie warfare. The importance of the theme is indicated by 
the fact that the value- of prizes and cargoes taken by privateers in the Revolution was 
three times that of the prizes and cargoes taken by naval vessels, while in the War of 
1812 we had 517 privateers and only 23 vessels in our navy. Mr. Maclay's romantic 
tale is accompanied by reproductions of contemporary pictures, portraits, and docu- 
ments, and also by illustrations by Mr. George Gibbs. 

The Private Journal of William Maclay, 

United States Senator from Pennsylvania, 1789-1791. With Por- 
trait from Original Miniature. Edited by Edgar Stanton 
Maclay, A. M. Large 8vo. Cloth, $2.25. 

During his two years m the Senate William Maclay kept a journal of his own, 
in which he minutely recorded the transactions of each day. This record throws a 
flood of light on the doings of our first legislators both in and out of Congress. 



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